New Law Forces El Paso Pool to Close

With the cold weather many people wouldn't think about taking a dip in the pool. A new federal law that went into effect today is forcing all public pools in El Paso to close their doors.

Swimmers around El Paso are arriving to locked doors because of the Virginia Graeme Baker law that requires all public pools to replace their drain covers with anti-suction covers.

El Paso's Aquatic Manager, Wright Stanton says the city has been ready to replace the covers since the announcement last December. But because the CPSC just approved 12 companies to produce the covers, the demand has been overwhelming.

"With the new standards we will have to replace all of them at all four of our facilities," Wright said. "A lot of the drain covers weren't available until four weeks ago."

The city says as long as the old drain covers remain in place it can't afford the risk of injury to potential swimmers.

Currently, there is a request into Congress to extend deadline for another year so production of the new drain covers can catch up to the demand.