What should our HOA board do when someone poops or has diarrhea in the community pool?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 28, 2026

HOA pool fecal incident steps for boards: formed stool vs diarrhea, CDC chlorine levels and closure times, the stabilizer problem, the log, and an owner notice.

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The short answer

Clear the water, find out which kind of accident it was, and have your pool operator treat the water to the CDC numbers. A formed stool means a closure of about 30 minutes at 2 parts per million (ppm) free chlorine. Diarrhea means the pool is closed overnight at the very least, and longer if the water holds chlorine stabilizer. Either way, the gate opens again on test results written in a log, not on how clear the water looks. Florida makes the CDC's Fecal Incident Response Recommendations for Aquatic Staff mandatory. Texas points every pool emergency plan at the CDC standards. Colorado sets its own closure times. Rules vary by state, by county and by your governing documents, and this guide is general education, not legal advice.

Why diarrhea gets a different response

A formed stool mostly threatens swimmers with germs like Giardia, which ordinary pool chlorine kills in under an hour. Diarrhea can carry Cryptosporidium, usually called Crypto, a parasite with a tough outer shell. CDC's page on poop in the pool says Crypto can live in properly chlorinated water for days. Its table puts the kill time at about 15,300 minutes, or 10.6 days, at 1 ppm free chlorine with no stabilizer in the water. That is why one sick toddler can close a pool for a weekend in July, and why the board should not push the operator to cut corners. If nobody can say for sure which kind of accident it was, ask the operator to treat it as diarrhea. A lost Saturday costs less than an outbreak traced to your pool.

Formed stool: close, scoop, hold the chlorine

The CDC steps, released June 22, 2018, are short: - Close the pool, along with any wading pool or spa that shares its filter. - Put on disposable gloves and lift the stool out with a net or bucket. Do not vacuum it. - Clean the net, or leave it in the water while the water is disinfected. - Using unstabilized chlorine such as liquid sodium hypochlorite, raise free chlorine to 2 ppm if it is lower, and hold it there at pH 7.5 or below for 25 to 30 minutes with the filter running. - Reopen once chlorine and pH are back inside the range your state allows. The CDC table also allows 45 minutes at 1 ppm or 19 minutes at 3 ppm. The times assume water at 77 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. Colorado's rule 4.14(3) is stricter on time. The pool closes, the solid matter comes out and the chemistry gets checked. If levels are in range, the pool stays closed at least 60 minutes. If they are not, it reopens 60 minutes after the levels are restored. A spa is different because the volume is small. CDC says to drain it, scrub the surfaces, clean or replace the filter media, refill, and hold at least 3 ppm with pH between 7.0 and 7.8 for 30 minutes.

Diarrhea: hyperchlorinate and plan on a day

With no stabilizer in the water, CDC calls for 20 ppm free chlorine at pH 7.5 or lower for 12.75 hours. The math is a CT value of 15,300, meaning ppm multiplied by minutes: 15,300 divided by 20 is 765 minutes. At 10 ppm it takes 25.5 hours. When the time is up, the operator backwashes the filter thoroughly to waste, never back through the filter, and replaces the filter media where that makes sense. Many standard pool test kits cannot read 20 ppm, so CDC suggests test strips that read 20 to 40 ppm or diluting the sample. CDC does not recommend testing the water for Crypto afterward. Colorado's rule 4.14(3)(D) says a pool with diarrhea in it must be superchlorinated and stay closed for 24 hours. A realistic weekend looks like this. A parent reports diarrhea at 3 p.m. Saturday and the pool is cleared at once. The operator arrives by 5 p.m. and has the water at 20 ppm by 7 p.m. The 12.75 hours end around 8 a.m. Sunday. The operator backwashes, lets the chlorine fall back into the normal range and logs the readings, and a Colorado pool can open at 3 p.m. Sunday. Tell owners Sunday afternoon at the earliest.

The stabilizer problem most HOA pools have

Many small community pools run on trichlor tablets or dichlor shock. Both add cyanuric acid, the chlorine stabilizer, and CDC says stabilizer slows the rate at which chlorine kills Crypto. Its recommendations for a diarrheal incident in stabilized water go like this: - If cyanuric acid is above 15 ppm, partially drain the pool and refill with fresh water until it reads 1 to 15 ppm, before hyperchlorinating. - At 1 to 15 ppm, hold 20 ppm free chlorine for 28 hours, 30 ppm for 18 hours, or 40 ppm for 8.5 hours. A pool sitting at 50 ppm cyanuric acid, which is common on tablets, faces a partial drain, a large water bill and a closure of two days or more. Ask your operator for the current reading now, before anything happens. In Florida, rule 64E-9.004 already requires a weekly cyanuric acid test at pools that use stabilized chlorine, so the number should be in the log. If it runs high every summer, talk with the operator about switching to liquid chlorine, and put the cost of a partial drain in the pool budget line.

Who does the work and what goes in the log

Directors should not be pouring chlorine. At 20 ppm and above, the chemicals and the water are a hazard, and CDC warns that mishandled chlorine causes injuries. Texas treats a property owners' association pool as a Class C pool, and 25 TAC 265.194(b) requires every Class C pool to be maintained under a trained and certified operator. Put the fecal incident procedure in the pool service contract so the operator knows a call can come on a Saturday. CDC says to log every incident: the date and time, formed stool or diarrhea, and the free chlorine and pH when it was found. Before reopening, record the steps taken, how chlorine and pH were adjusted, the readings and the disinfection time. Texas rule 265.193(l)(5) requires the pool's water log to record formed stool or diarrhea and the remedial action, and those records are kept at least three years. CDC offers a free Water Contamination Response Log you can print. Florida's rule 64E-9.004(12) requires the owner or operator to follow all of the CDC recommendations. Section 514.0115(3) exempts the pools of associations with no more than 32 units or parcels from Department of Health supervision except for water quality, so a small Florida HOA should ask its county health office how the rule applies. Follow the CDC steps either way. Colorado's rule exempts private pools used only by residents and their guests, but the CDC numbers are still the standard a pool company will be judged by.

Signs and pool rules that cut the odds

Texas's sign table at 25 TAC 265.190(f)(5) lists two signs with letters at least 2 inches tall: "DO NOT SWIM IF YOU HAVE BEEN ILL WITH DIARRHEA WITHIN THE PAST 2 WEEKS" and "CHANGING DIAPERS WITHIN 6 FEET OF THE POOL IS PROHIBITED." The table applies to pools built after the rule took effect and to signs replaced at older pools. Every HOA pool can post the same two lines for the cost of a sign. CDC's swim diaper page says swim diapers and swim pants are not leak-proof. They may hold some solid stool but delay diarrhea germs by only a few minutes. CDC tells caregivers to check them about every 60 minutes and change them away from the poolside, and tells anyone diagnosed with Crypto to stay out until two weeks after the diarrhea has completely stopped. A rule the board can adapt, adopted with whatever notice your documents require: "Children who are not toilet trained must wear a swim diaper, checked at least hourly and changed only in the restroom. Anyone who has had diarrhea in the past two weeks may not use the pool or spa. Report any feces in the water to [phone] right away."

Owner notice and a board motion

Post this on the gate and send it the same day, and leave out any names: "The pool is closed as of [time] today after a diarrheal accident in the water. Our pool operator is treating the water following CDC guidance, which takes at least [hours]. We expect to reopen [day and time] once the water tests in range. Please do not swim if you have had diarrhea in the past two weeks, and check swim diapers about every hour. Thank you to the parent who reported it right away." That last line matters. A family that gets shamed online will not report the next one, and an unreported accident is the one that makes people sick. A motion for the next meeting: "I move that the association adopt a fecal incident procedure based on CDC's Fecal Incident Response Recommendations for Aquatic Staff; that the pool contract require the operator to respond within [hours], keep liquid chlorine and high-range test strips on site, and report the cyanuric acid level with each monthly report; that any director or resident may close the pool when feces is found in the water; and that only the operator may reopen it." Our guide on what to do after a near drowning at the HOA pool covers the other emergency that leaves a mess in the water, and our guide on opening the HOA pool for the season is the place to add the cyanuric acid check.

Mistakes boards make

Vacuuming the stool. CDC says not to, and a net or bucket does the job. Shocking with dichlor or trichlor after a diarrheal accident. Both are stabilizers, so the shock raises the cyanuric acid and lengthens the treatment. CDC's steps call for unstabilized chlorine. Reopening the same afternoon because the water looks clean. Crypto is invisible. Treating the main pool and forgetting the wading pool that shares its filter. Learning the cyanuric acid reading for the first time on a holiday weekend. Arguing on the community Facebook page about whose child it was. Thank the reporter, post the reopening time and move on.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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