{"id":474754,"date":"2026-09-25T00:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T00:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474754\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T00:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T00:50:12","slug":"were-chemical-injuries-at-temescal-pool-linked-to-oaklands-failure-to-hire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/474754\/","title":{"rendered":"Were chemical injuries at Temescal Pool linked to Oakland\u2019s failure to hire?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, a mistaken chemical release at the Temescal Pool exposed swimmers to dangerous<\/a> concentrations of hydrochloric acid and chlorine, sending several to the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City officials are investigating the incident and still haven\u2019t shared details about how the two chemicals \u2014 which are normally used to balance pH and kill bacteria \u2014 were suddenly released in the pool while swimmers were doing their morning laps. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that a pool should be closed to swimmers<\/a> during chemical applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply sorry to the swimmers who were affected by this incident,\u201d City spokesperson Sean Maher told The Oaklandside. \u201cIndividuals who use a City pool expect and deserve a safe environment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

An identical statement, unattributed, was sent to pool users through the city\u2019s Aquatics Unit email address on Sept. 22.<\/p>\n

Temescal Pool will remain closed while the city investigates what went wrong and implements operational changes to prevent anything similar from happening again, Maher said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city also alluded to human error as the potential cause of the Temescal Pool incident, saying it will conduct additional mandatory training for staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis re-training instructs that no changes to the circulation system or chemical controllers will be made while the swimming pool is in active use,\u201d Maher said.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Zac Unger, whose district includes the Temescal Pool, has told constituents that the incident was \u201cscary and unacceptable.\u201d In emails several swimmers shared with The Oaklandside, Unger told residents that he\u2019s made it clear to the city administrator and Public Works Department, which is in charge of maintaining the pools, that the incident needs to be treated seriously.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After The Oaklandside reported<\/a> on the incident at Temescal Pool last week, we received a flood of tips, comments and questions from pool users who have seen firsthand how Oakland\u2019s aquatics facilities have been neglected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A review of city records shows that the city is grappling with a longstanding problem \u2014 and that its own inaction may lie at the root. Despite the City Council setting aside money to hire pool technicians to maintain safe water quality, the city has failed to fill these jobs. Right now, the city has no pool techs on staff and it\u2019s unclear when they\u2019ll hire these key positions.<\/p>\n

Oakland\u2019s five city-owned pools are understaffed and underfunded<\/p>\n

The city currently owns and operates five pools \u2014 Temescal in North Oakland, DeFremery in West Oakland, Lions in Dimond and the Larry E. Reid and Fremont pools in East Oakland.<\/p>\n

Residents say, and records confirm, that every single pool has had water quality problems in recent years, sometimes leading to sudden and unexplained closures.<\/p>\n

One parent who recently contacted us has a child on a competitive swim team that uses city pools. The parent, who asked not to be identified citing privacy concerns, said their kid always looks forward to summers spent swimming, \u201cbut we are always at the mercy of the pools.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chemical and water quality issues resulted in at least one of their child\u2019s swim meets being canceled in 2024 and another in 2025. This summer, the Fremont pool was closed for a weekend, affecting a scheduled swim event, the parent said. Their child competed at the DeFremery Pool instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLast summer, the Temescal Pool closed a week before the end of their swim season,\u201d the parent said. \u201cThis summer, the DeFremery Pool was closed for at least a few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, their child started swimming with a team that practices on weekdays at DeFremery, but the pool has been plagued by maintenance issues, the parent said, and nine of the 25 swim practices were impacted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Aug. 19, the parent said, they arrived at the DeFremery pool to discover the lifeguards were testing the water pH. Later, DeFremery had issues that lasted from Aug. 26 to Sept. 2, but the parent said their child was able to practice at the Fremont Pool during that time. Then on Sept. 4, they received an email from the city\u2019s aquatics program, saying that the Fremont Pool was closed for maintenance until further notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DeFremery closed again on Sept. 10 due to no chlorine and low pH, and again on Sept. 14 and 15, according to the parent who spoke with swim coaches.<\/p>\n

Another parent who reached out to The Oaklandside said her child frequently uses the pool at the Larry E. Reid Sports Center on Edes Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a 5-year-old who absolutely loves to swim and can credit all of her swimming skills to the amazing folks within Oakland Parks and Rec.,\u201d they said. \u201cWe also have a 2-year-old who mostly likes to swim in the parent and me classes and is learning some critical safety skills.\u201d We\u2019re not identifying the parent at their request, to protect their privacy.<\/p>\n

They said \u201cthings continue to go downhill\u201d with the pool due to big fluctuations in the water temperature and closures because of poor water quality and shared with us a recent notice from the city\u2019s aquatics program stating that the Larry E. Reid pool was closed on Monday and will remain closed until Sept. 28 \u201cwhile maintenance work is completed in the pool area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is a traditional tale of the flats,\u201d the parent said. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating that there\u2019s such a lack of investment in our pools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another swimmer, Andrew Judd, who regularly uses the Temescal Pool, told us that \u201cthe pool has been closed basically every other day most of the summer due to \u2018water quality issues.\u2019 The Aquatics staff sends emails about the closures and thanks us for our patience, but never says what the plan is to deal with the issue long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

And one more swimmer who also asked not to be named over privacy concerns forwarded us an Aug. 16 email from the city notifying swimmers that the Lions Pool in Dimond was closed that day \u201cdue to water quality concerns.\u201d The swimmer called the message\u2019s lack of specific information \u201cpretty standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oakland has money to hire pool techs, but HR hasn\u2019t started recruiting<\/p>\n

City of Oakland documents reveal one major source of problems for Oakland\u2019s pools: the city currently doesn\u2019t have any full-time pool technicians on staff who are trained to maintain water quality.<\/p>\n

Oakland has the money to hire two staffers who specialize in pool maintenance, according to the current city budget. But both of those positions have been left vacant for a long time.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Oakland City Council received a report<\/a> that outlined how hundreds of city jobs are vacant<\/a> even though Oakland has money to fill them. This report included the pool technician jobs<\/a>. As of February, the Public Works Department and city administrator had approved hiring people to fill those roles. But recruitment hadn\u2019t started, according to the city report.<\/p>\n

We asked Maher, the city spokesperson, when the city first posted the pool tech jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are discussing opportunities to timely recruit for them right now,\u201d Maher said in a Sept. 22 email.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Frustrated swimmers and residents have been asking city leaders about hiring staff, especially since the Sept. 10 Temescal Pool incident.<\/p>\n

Unger, the District 1 councilmember, has floated the idea of using the savings from the unfilled pool tech positions to hire a contractor to \u201cperform a thorough review of our pool maintenance issues,\u201d according to emails to a constituent shared with The Oaklandside. \u201cIf we can\u2019t find a full-time technician to work in-house,\u201d he said, \u201cwe should hire all pool maintenance out to an outside contractor.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the absence of pool techs, Oakland has relied on \u201cCertified Pool Operators\u201d to maintain the city\u2019s pools. These include lifeguards and other public works staff, including a custodian who is dedicated to daily routine checks and maintenance. Maher said that these staff have other primary responsibilities, suggesting they can\u2019t be expected to do all the work of a pool technician.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is a sign that things might soon change. After The Oaklandside\u2019s reporting on the Temescal Pool, and our repeated inquiries to city staff, on Wednesday, the city posted a hiring notice<\/a> for a pool technician.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two weeks ago, a mistaken chemical release at the Temescal Pool exposed swimmers to dangerous concentrations of hydrochloric…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4386,186678,186679,186680,186681,143,5365,145,144,41063,12738,183337,22375],"class_list":["post-474754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-city-administrator","tag-defremery-pool","tag-fremont-pool","tag-larry-e-reid-sports-center","tag-lions-pool","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-city-council","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-public-works","tag-sean-maher","tag-temescal-pool","tag-zac-unger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}