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Environmental quality specialist Rilwan Etti tests the pool water while Glen Shannon Community Park pool manager Derek Peterson looks on.

Story and photo by John Perry

“I didn’t have any idea it was going to be this bad,” said Rilwan Etti, gesturing with his clipboard toward murky, larvae-covered, algae-colored water. “There could be a dead body on the bottom and no one would know.”

Etti, a Health Department environmental quality specialist, was responding to a resident’s complaint regarding the putrid state of the swimming pool at the 53-unit Tel Wink Apartments in Gulfgate’s low-income area.

When a complaint comes in, an inspector responds.

“Besides being a breeding ground for mosquitoes,” Etti said, “the water’s unfit for human contact. You could develop skin rashes, dysentery or gosh knows what else.”

Environmental health personnel like Etti oversee Houston’s apartment, commercial and community swimming pools, spas, health clubs, country clubs, homeowner’s associations, motels and other recreational water facilities.

“I’d like to think that we help keep people healthy and save lives,” Etti said.

Etti notes that the chain link fence encompassing the pool is broken down.

“That’s all it takes,” he said, checking the faulty gate by the deep end of the pool. “A child could wander through, fall in and drown.”

Three children drowned in Houston apartment complex swimming pools this summer.

Houston Apartment Association spokesman Andy Teas said apartment complexes should provide a safe environment around a pool, including fences, self-latching gates, and signs advising parents to supervise their children.

“This complaint is definitely valid,” said Etti, scanning the apartment doors. “Let’s find the manager and get some answers.”

At 5-feet 9-inches tall, a muscular Etti walks with the sturdy determination of a football linebacker seeking head-on contact.

Finding the manager, M.L. Lara, in her onsite apartment, Etti has her accompany him on a tour of the pool area while he goes through his inspector’s checklist. What he finds is bad.

There is “zero” chlorine in the pool water, the pH balance is “way off,” the clarity is “nonexistent” and there is evidence of black algae. Added to that, the pump isn’t working.

Etti is clearly unhappy. He remains professionally polite but decisively firm. He documents the violations in a Health Department Pool Inspection Report and informs Lara that the pool must be brought into compliance with city regulations within three business days or the owner will be fined up to $2,000.

After the manager signed the violations notice, Etti gave her a copy.

Stepping back to the pool area, Etti tags the apartments’ maintenance man and instructs him to start pumping the pestilent water out of the pool immediately and to refill it with fresh, chlorinated water and enough soda ash to raise the pH balance to the recommended 7-7.8 safe level.

Once the draining had begun, Etti seemed satisfied and started to leave.

“I’ll be back,” Etti promised as he left. “Don’t disappoint me.”

The manager assured him the complex would be in compliance.

In his 12 years as a pool inspector, Etti has impressed his supervisors as an outstanding and dedicated employee.

“Rilwan brings that rare combination of intellectual honesty and an unfailing positive energy to every investigation he undertakes,” said Dr. Pamela Berger, public health engineering and water pollution control bureau chief. “He’s an asset to this bureau, the department and the city.”

He is one of seven pool investigators who are cross-trained with regard to residential and commercial pools, Berger said.

Next inspection on the agenda is for a permit renewal at the Glen Shannon Community Park pool in the Bissonnet-Wilcrest area.

Derek Peterson, director of Sweetwater Pools Inc. and manager of the pool for the homeowner’s association, meets Etti.

The area is clean and secured by a fence with a self-latching gate. The water is clear, correctly chlorinated and filtered by an always-operating pump.

“What a difference from that other pool,” Etti said. “If we were to jump in here we would be fine, but more importantly so would the homeowners and their kids.”

Peterson appreciates Etti’s professionalism.

“Mr. Etti understands the importance of protecting neighborhoods,” Peterson said. “Without pool inspectors, there would be a lot of safety violations and more danger for children.”

“If you enjoy protecting people and being outdoors, it’s a great way to make a living,” Etti said.

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