Was antifreeze in the Kedron Pool poisoning kids in Peachtree City?

Peachtree City shut down the Kedron Pool for a week after ethylene glycol (antifreeze) was found in the pool water. We had a conversation with City Manager Justin Strickland to find out what happened.

How did The Citizen find out about the pool antifreeze? MacKenzie Waller, the sister of a competitive swimmer, brought it to our attention with a message that said, “My 16-year-old sister is a Whitewater High School swimmer. The local schools take turns practicing at the Kedron pool. Since October, my sister has been feeling sick and having asthma attacks requiring rescue inhaler at practice. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one—kids were getting so sick at practice with respiratory issues that some Starr’s Mill High School moms demanded the health department check the pool. (Kedron just kept saying the levels were normal). Health department comes out to investigate-turns out ANTIFREEZE has been leaking into the pool from the heater for God knows how long.”

As a medical professional MacKenzie was very concerned. She continued, “Not good. Antifreeze is used to poison and kill people.” She was concerned with Peachtree City’s lack of response and communication on this.

So The Citizen took it to Peachtree City City Manager Justin Strickland. It turns out there WAS a test positive for antifreeze from the lab. According to Strickland, it wasn’t the health department that came out, but rather his city maintenance team, after they received a complaint. He said, “We do routine monthly testing of the chemicals in the pool. So we did an extra batch. It did come back with high levels of the same kind of stuff you would find in antifreeze. So we shut the pool down immediately.” He was talking about ethylene glycol.

“As soon as we got the results, we shut the pool down that instant. Because that’s not supposed to be in the pool and it can be harmful to people. We were concerned because we don’t use that chemical in our pool. We checked our inventory of the chemicals, make sure that none of it was labeled or had anything on there that was that chemical. And we didn’t, so we came to two conclusions. Either there was foul play or the tests were wrong. And so we took two more samples that day. We sent them off to two separate labs. And since we shut the pool down immediately it was shut down the rest of that week,” said City Manager Strickland.

Justin secured his CCTV footage, with the possibility that someone had poisoned the pool on purpose.

Within several days the tests came back from the two labs: No antifreeze in the pool water. He said, “The pool reopened on Wednesday. Both labs confirmed with us that they can guarantee that it’s safe based on the two independent studies and numbers they ran. So we were confident in opening the pool back up. So it was a false positive.”

Strickland said, “We actually had a phone call with the lab that had the initial results that said it was in there and they verified and said the first test was wrong.”

Since the test results came back, Strickland has been sending emails out to parents whose kids swim at the pool, trying to get the word out that the pool is safe.

What about the respiratory problems that MacKenzie’s sister was experiencing? Strickland has no answer for that. In fact, the Kedron pool is a saltwater pool, not even the chlorine kind usually more problematic.

The following is from the email that Peachtree City sent out to parents and concerned citizens:

“Last week, immediately after receiving pool water analysis results, the City of Peachtree City took the precautionary step of closing the Kedron Aquatic Center. The lab results indicated excessive levels of ethylene glycol in the pool water. This finding was alarming because the city does not use any products containing ethylene glycol at Kedron.

The test results showed the following ethylene glycol levels:

•                      Competition Pool: 27 mg/L

•                      Therapy Pool: 15 mg/L

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), ethylene glycol becomes toxic to humans at concentrations above 20 mg/L. Exposure to ethylene glycol can result in symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, skin irritation, kidney damage, and in severe cases, it can be fatal. Ethylene glycol is commonly found in automotive antifreeze and industrial products. Again, we would like to reiterate that it is not used by the city at this facility.

The city does use propylene glycol—a food-grade, non-toxic substance—in the pool heating system. Test results for propylene glycol showed:

•                      Therapy Pool: Undetectable levels

•                      Competition Pool: 7.1 mg/L

Given the discrepancy with the ethylene glycol results, the city immediately requested additional testing by both the original and a secondary lab. The re-test results, received today, confirmed that ethylene glycol was not detected in either of the Kedron pools and that the original results were incorrect due to a lab error.

In addition to the water analysis, the city conducted air quality testing at the aquatic center. These tests revealed elevated levels of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in one corner of the therapy pool deck area. This chemical is a byproduct of the routine pool disinfection processes. The elevated DBPs were still within acceptable levels for short-term exposure of less than 8 hours.

To address the one corner showing elevated DBP levels, the city will implement measures to ensure a safer environment, including:

•                      Encouraging swimmers to shower before entering the pool, which can significantly reduce organic matter introduced to the water.

•                      Enhancing air circulation within the aquatic center to reduce the future accumulation of DBPs.