The Twisp pool has a poop problem

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Foul play at Wagner Memorial Pool
July 10, 2025 by Ralph Schwartz
Methow Valley News

Several fecal contaminations prompt closures

The Twisp pool has a poop problem.

Wagner Memorial Pool has been shut down at least three times this summer, after feces was found in the pool or on pool grounds, town officials said.

If the incidents continue, the town may be forced to restrict the number of people who can participate in open swim — or shut it down altogether, Mayor Hans Smith said.

The Twisp Pool Facebook page noted that July 2 marked the third incident of fecal contamination in the pool in two weeks.

“It’s not all occurring in the kiddie pool,” Smith said in an interview. “It doesn’t appear to just be a young toddler who has a faulty swim diaper. The bulk of it has occurred in the deeper end.”

And nobody is fessing up and helping pool staff to locate the problem so it can be cleaned thoroughly and quickly.

Given that officials don’t know who the culprit is, the incidents have the whiff of foul play.

“If it was an isolated incident, a child who just made a mistake, no one is going to get upset about that,” Smith said. “In this case, no one’s coming forward and saying, ‘I’m sorry. I did this, and I’m going to avoid doing it again.’ It feels like repetitive behavior … so yeah, we’re concerned about it.”

Health risks

One incident was particularly — well, disgusting.

“One of the times it was literally in many locations throughout the pool, including on the deck and slide,” Smith said.

The pool had to close for the remainder of the day while staff searched for fecal matter and then followed a thorough procedure to clean the water and other affected areas.

Even small amounts of fecal contamination in swimming pools can pose health risks, including gastrointestinal illnesses, and ear and skin infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Children, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems are at greatest risk.

A 2021 report published by the CDC logged 208 recreational water illness outbreaks over a five-year period, resulting in at least 3,646 illnesses, 286 hospitalizations and 13 deaths.

For now, staff at Wagner Pool are taking down the names of individuals who participate in open swim.

“We may restrict how many people are allowed in for open swim as a next step,” Smith said, adding that the town could take the further step of temporarily shutting down open swim.

“We don’t want this to be a punishment for everybody,” the mayor said. “It closes open swim anyway and creates a lot of chaos, so what we need is for the behavior to stop.”

If younger children are the source of the problem, the town pool sells swim diapers to patrons, and the CDC recommends that parents take young potty-trained children on hourly bathroom breaks.