LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Not only is the Canadian wildfire smoke affecting our air quality, but there is also a sneaky impact that many West Central Ohio residents are beginning to notice.
Recently, there has been an unusually large influx of pool owners in the local area observing cloudy, swampy pool water and even a transition to the color green despite residents properly following pool maintenance. To investigate on this interesting trend, Your Hometown Stations visited Pools-N-More in Lima where they have been busy responding to these complaints, and owner, Tim Trowbridge, reveals that their findings suggest the culprit could be the ongoing Canadian wildfire smoke plaguing the region.
"We've seen an unusually amount of instances where pool waters are cloudy that they can't clear, green and swampy looking, and everybody is doing everything that they normally do, and it's not enough," stated Tim Trowbridge, owner of Pools-N-More. "From our own investigation we've determined that it's ammonia and we are theorizing that it's from the smoke from the wildfires up in Canada because it's been going on for most of the summer."
Over the past few decades, extensive academic research has shown that wildfire smoke is a major contributor to adding ammonia into our atmosphere. In response to this issue, Trowbridge has informed the Ohio EPA of their findings. Trowbridge also adds that pool owners should watch for cloudy, green pools with algae for possible ammonia and nitrate contamination as that could be a sign that the chlorine has been depleted out of the pool. Should that occur, testing your pool is recommended.
