Toxic Indiana Pool Sickens 79, Chemicals to Blame

A summer day of fun turned toxic for dozens of swimmers at an Indiana pool after 79 were sickened due to chemicals in the water.

As of last night, seven children were still hospitalized due to the toxic Indiana pool incident, and most of those taken ill during the heat wave were kids. According to local health officials and news sources, there have been a handful of health violations at the Indiana pool, but none that independent of the health scare would necessarily cause concern.

Local news station Fox 59 said that The Marion County Public Health Department gave the pool permission to reopen the same day after an inspection cleared the recreation spot for public use — but a contractor, Spear Corporation, provides maintenance for the pool and says that they’d like to perform their own inspection to see what went wrong before Indiana’s Garfield Park Pool reopens to the public after the chemical scare.

Indiana poolgoer Eileen Ellis witnessed the incident, and says that officials did not know when the toxic pool would be ready to reopen:

“They said the pool was not open due to a problem with the chemicals, and it may or may not open… Some people were very hot. In fact, some left early.”

Jen Pittman, Deputy Director of Indy Parks, told the news station that a reaction in the chemicals used to keep the pool clean appeared to be the culprit, but that it was difficult to tell what caused the toxic pool scare:

“It looks like the wrong combination of chemicals, but beyond that, we don’t have anything conclusive… At this point, this is an issue that stands alone. Routine maintenance and things happen all of the time.”

Local health officials addressing the Indiana pool issue said that they had “not been able to determine a cause for yesterday’s incident.”