Aquatics News: From Europe, a No-Chlorine Backyard Pool

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From Europe, a No-Chlorine Backyard Pool

(Photos at website)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/garden/05pools.html?

pagewanted=2 & _r=1 & adxnnl=1 & ref=health & adxnnlx=1176054393-

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MICK HILLEARY, an industrial designer who builds zoo exhibits and

trade show displays, and who expanded into residential pools five

years ago, has found that Americans have a clearly defined idea of

what constitutes a proper swimming pool.

" It's a white-tiled thing, " said Mr. Hilleary, whose company, Total

Habitat, in Bonner Springs, Kan., specializes in what could be

called the opposite of the white- or blue-tiled things found in

millions of backyards across the country.

The " natural pools " that Total Habitat builds are bordered with

wood, planted with lush vegetation and free of chemicals like

chlorine; they resemble nothing so much as a swimming hole. " It's

natural-looking, like a pond, " Mr. Hilleary said. " But the water

looks so clean. People really want to swim in it, more than in a

farm pond. "

Natural swimming pools (or swimming ponds, as they are called in

Europe, where the concept originated 20 years ago) are self-cleaning

pools that combine swimming areas and water gardens. Materials and

designs vary — the pools can be lined with rubber or reinforced

polyethylene, as in the case of Total Habitat's, and may look rustic

or modern — but all natural pools rely on " regeneration " zones,

areas given over to aquatic plants that act as organic cleansers.

The pools have skimmers and pumps that circulate the water through

the regeneration zone and draw it across a wall of rocks, loose

gravel or tiles, to which friendly bacteria attach, serving as an

additional biological filter. Unlike artificial ponds, which tend to

be as murky with groundwater runoff and sediment from soil erosion

as the natural ponds they're modeled on, in a natural pool the water

is clear enough to see through to the bottom.

The pools, which cost about the same as or slightly more than

conventional ones, depending on landscaping, appeal to gardeners

because of the great variety of plant life that can be grown in

them, as well as to green advocates and others who don't want to

swim in chlorinated water.

" Many, many people don't like chlorine, " said Morse, who runs

a landscaping company in Vista, Calif., called Expanding Horizons

that builds water features and branched into natural pools five

years ago. Taking advantage of the Southern California climate, Mr.

Morse created a sort of jungle lagoon in his own backyard, building

a natural swimming pool with a thatch-roof palapa and a regeneration

zone filled with tropical foliage like Madagascar palm and varieties

of canna lilies.

The business is hardly a growth industry, at least in the United

States. Total Habitat has built eight natural pools, mostly in the

Midwest. (Mr. Hilleary said he has formed a trade organization, the

Natural Swimming Pool Association, " to protect the integrity " of the

industry; he has certified himself under its requirements. The group

has only two members, Mr. Hilleary and Littlewood, a builder

in England.) Mr. Morse said he has built four pools, including his

own, mostly for " ex-hippies. "

The pools are more popular in Austria, where a company called Biotop

has been designing them for residential and public use since 1986

and now installs about 50 a year, according to Petrich,

Biotop's owner and the person credited with inventing the concept.

Mr. Petrich said he and his colleagues have given much consideration

to why natural pools haven't caught on in the United States and have

concluded that " perhaps in Europe people have more contact with

nature and life is not so clinical. "

Toni Schneeweiss of Biotop said that private pools in Austria,

unlike those in the United States, generally do not require building

permits, which can be harder to obtain for projects using unfamiliar

technology. But it is also true that natural pools are not well

known in the United States, and that it is hard to find people to

build them.

For builders like Mr. Hilleary and Mr. Morse, natural pools are a

side business, and mainstream pool contractors don't seem to offer

them at all. Penny , the chairwoman of the Association of

Pool & Spa Professionals, an industry trade group, said she had

never heard of the concept until she was asked about it for this

article. She expressed skepticism about the technology. " I don't

know how plants could filter the water for bathing use, " she said,

adding that in her experience outdoor pools have to be " shocked "

with chemicals to kill bacteria.

Asked about safety concerns, Mr. Petrich said that the water in the

natural pools his company builds meets European Union standards for

bacteria levels and that the risk of swimmers becoming sick is " very

low. "

One American homeowner who has such a pool, Jim , a 45-year-old

computer programmer who lives in a suburb of Wichita, Kan., said he

learned about the pools in a sales pitch given by Mr. Hilleary at a

home show in 2002. Mr. and his wife, Susie, who is an avid

gardener, decided to build a natural pool with a miniature

waterfall, plants like hornwort and anacharis and a 40-foot

recirculating stream that would run past their living room windows.

(Mr. said he spent about $50,000 on the pool, or $20,000 more

than he estimates a standard pool would have cost; he attributed the

higher cost in part to elaborate landscaping.)

The couple, who have two daughters, had a chlorinated pool at a

previous home, and Mr. said the transition was difficult. " It

took us the first year to learn how to deal with the water, " he

said, referring to the way natural pools can become overgrown with

algae. " In a regular pool, you just put chlorine in and shock it. "

Indeed, algae is the great scourge of the natural pool world, for

aesthetic reasons more than anything else. " It's very important for

people that their water be clear, " said Mr. Petrich, whose pools in

Europe use plants to starve algae of nutrients.

Algae tends to be a problem in the first year of a pool's existence

and then to clear up significantly once the plants have grown large

and developed a root system, he said. (Each spring, natural pools

will go through an algae phase anyway, Mr. Morse said.) But given

algae's sliminess and the widespread view of it as disgusting, Mr.

Hilleary has taken additional measures to stem the growth of algae

and eliminate bacteria, installing ultraviolet sterilizers in the

pump area.

Mr. Morse said he adds trace amounts of chlorine — less than the

amount found in tap water — which reacts with silver and copper

beads housed in the pump area and has a similar effect.

Still, owners say that once they adjust to the idea of their pools

as living ecosystems and master the maintenance particular to

natural pools — trimming dead plants; fishing debris and the

occasional snake or turtle out of the water — there are advantages.

Watching the seasons change is one. " In the spring, all the

wildflowers come up, " Mr. said, both in and near the

water. " In December, the pool ices over and becomes gorgeous. " Two

ducks spent the last month visiting the s' pool.

There are also the elaborate landscaping and design possibilities.

The regeneration zone can be along the perimeter of a natural pool

or on one side of it, separate from the swimming area, and, as Mr.

Hilleary says, " a person can go to town with water plants, " like

marsh marigolds and water lilies.

Bill , a petroleum engineer in Wichita, built a natural pool

at his family's house last summer with two waterfalls and a

bordering wall built of massive boulders — a design that would have

been difficult with a conventional pool, he said, because the

concrete liner might have buckled under the weight. " With the

natural pool I don't mind if the ground shifts a little, " Mr.

said. " It gave us flexibility with the landscape. "

Mr. Littlewood, a landscape designer in England who has built 35

natural pools in southern England since 2001 and wrote a book on the

subject, " Natural Swimming Pools, " said a natural pool blends into

its surroundings in a way that a " turquoise box " cannot. " It's

beautiful to look at all year round, " he said, " and you can educate

your children about the ecology. "

Some owners of conventional pools have also begun turning toward

more organic-looking styles, said Samarotto, a designer at All

American Custom Pools and Spas in Norwalk, Conn., who has noticed an

increased demand for landscape features like boulders and native

plants around pools. She added that she has also seen an increase in

the popularity of copper-silver ionization systems that

significantly reduce chlorine content.

Whether Americans will go for the natural pool remains to be seen.

For those who do install them, Mr. offered some advice born of

experience. " I wouldn't say they're for everyone, " he said. " You

can't be uptight and unable to wait on nature to repair things. "

Algae, he said, " is natural, and healthy water is going to have some

algae. "

One more tip: " Kids like to throw algae. "