Water Plan Approval

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) must be notified any time that an operator determines that an equipment change is necessary or the facility is scheduled to be substantially altered. Specifically, ODH needs to be made aware of the following situations:

• Replacement of a disinfectant feeding device with one of different method of delivery, capacity, or reagent.
• Replacement of a filter with that of a different media or capacity.
• Replacement of a pump with a different horsepower or flow rate.

These changes are examples of “Equipment Replacement”.  Approval must be obtained by submitting an Equipment Replacement Form with the appropriate fee to the Ohio Department of Health. Along with new pool construction, other situations or alterations may require more extensive plan review.  In this case, an Application For Plan Review must be submitted to ODH for approval.  After review and approval, ODH will schedule field inspections of the construction or alteration.

Notification would also need to be sent to ODH if a “substantial alteration” is scheduled to be completed within the pool environment. Any of the following changes would qualify as a substantial alteration and require that plans be submitted to the Ohio Department of Health:

• Construction that changes the depth, shape, or other basic design of the pool in a manner that affects pool patron safety or recirculation, system design, changes or replaces a deck, changes the basic design of a diving board, or adds a special feature such as a slide
• Complete replacement of the recirculation system
• Changes to a diving board
• Replacement of all return piping or skimmer piping
• Replacement of more than 50% of a gutter system or the total number of inlets and outlets.

Please keep in mind that alterations not listed here may also require plan approval.

You can contact the Cuyahoga County Board of Health or the Ohio Department of Health Engineering Office at (614) 466-1390 if you have any questions about plan review or equipment change notification.