Meet with Department of Health

One of the craziest things about building the world’s first water-filtering floating pool is permitting.  The city, state and federal government require permits to build anything and everything to protect citizens and keep us safe, naturally. We knew this, but not all that it entails.

One of our most crucial meetings early in our research phase was meeting with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to understand the classification options for + POOL.  The pool will eventually be either classified as a “Bathing Beach” (Article 167 DOHMH Code) or “Bathing Establishment” i.e. pool (Article 165 DOHMH Code). Our main problem: + POOL is not technically either. We want to meet all of the safety standards required of a swimming facility but by definition, + POOL is not a swimming pool.

For those that aren’t going to look up the article codes (don’t blame you): a bathing beach contains water that is not closed-in on all sides. BUT, a bathing beach requires a certain amount of surface area (larger than + POOL) and New York State does not currently allow any bathing beaches in the NY harbor. Awesome.

A bathing establishment (otherwise known as a pool) has water that is close-in on all sides, and therefore must be treated with some sort of disinfection in order to kill bacteria on-contact: chlorine, bromine (or an alternative that is tested and proven).