When PWTAG came on the scene 40 years ago, pool management had already come a long way from the 1800s when pools were filled on a Monday and emptied a week later. The Ministry of Health had published The Purification of the Water of Swimming Bath (‘the blue book’) in 1929. An association of baths superintendents (ABS, to become NABS, IBM, IBRM, ISRM, IMSPA, CIMSPA) launched their journal in 1934.
From 1979 a Department of the Environment sub-committee published a series of booklets on alternatives to chlorine gas, and in 1984 another ‘blue book’ (in fact white) The treatment and quality of swimming pool water. This became the sub-title of Pool Water Guide, the 1995 book published by PWTAG. By then PWTAG had been operating for ten years, emerging from under the umbrella of the Sports Council, who had taken it on from the DoE. From the start, PWTAG set out to bridge the gaps between legislation (virtually none), official guidelines (HSE etc) professional bodies (special pleading), academic experts (hard to find) and commercial associations (money).
It adopted the perhaps uniquely English solution of inviting them all to join – and pay an annual membership fee. Prejudices and factional interests were largely neutralised, unable to flourish amid the hurly burly of committee meeting debate.
Thanks to this independence and the expertise of its members, PWTAG was able to give authoritative guidance on a wide range of issues, from pool hydraulics to dangerous incidents in and around pools. So, there would be press releases and the occasional publication – on ozone in 1988, and the results of a survey of pool management practices (Pool Monitor) in 1990.
When the blue book went out of print in 1992, PWTAG started work on the much longer (74 pages) and more comprehensive Pool Water Guide. It established PWTAG as the authority and the book as its bible. Over the years since, over 15,000 copies have been sold of the book and its successor – Swimming Pool Water in its three editions (1999, 142 pages; 2009, 202 pages; 2017, 270 pages)..
And there have been slimmer volumes on spas and hot tubs – domestic and commercial. The PWTAG code of practice and the many technical notes allow users of the website to keep up to date.
What next? Well PWTAG is in good health. Its council and its various committees are well supported, its finances boosted by income from its influential training initiatives. A new edition of the big book is planned – of course.
Pool Water Treatment Advisory Group
