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School was out and "open plunge" was on at Fairmont Aquatic Center on Tuesday afternoon.
So where were the kids?
The day's 90-degree weather would normally draw children by the dozens, but a state ban on children under 5 in public swimming pools in eight northern Utah counties took immediate effect.
"We have a total of four people," said Randy Christensen, Fairmont's program coordinator.
Health officials are hoping to curb an outbreak of crypto, or cryptosporidium, a water-borne parasite believed to have caused thousands of cases of diarrhea this summer.
People catch the parasite mostly from exposure to fecal matter. Children under 5 - especially those in diapers - are the biggest vectors of the parasite.
Pools in Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Weber, Morgan, Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties began banning toddlers from their waters on Tuesday and posting signs warning of the dangers of the disease, known simply as "crypto."
Those pools, including neighborhood pools and ones in apartment complexes and hotels, also began a new mandated cleaning regimen that includes "super-chlorination" at least once a week.
Swimmers at Fairmont were already noticing a difference Tuesday, said Trisa Amador, who works at the front desk. Regular swimmers came in, took a whiff of the chlorine and left, she said.
"It's not a pleasant swim," Amador said.
The outbreak has Lagoon amusement park planning to close its water park after Labor Day rather than remaining open the last two weekends of the season, said park spokesman Dick Andrew. There were no reports of crypto at the park this year, he said.
The outbreak began in Utah County in late July and spread to pools as far north as Rich County, Utah Department of Health officials said.
To date, 422 cases statewide have been confirmed this year, a jump from an average of 30 cases in a typical year, said state epidemiologist Robert Rolfs.
"That is probably the tip of the iceberg," Rolfs said.
The number of cases is likely 10 times that because most people do not visit the hospital after exposure, Rolfs said. About 10 percent of cases are severe, Rolfs said, but no one has died from the parasite this year.
Experts attributed an unusually hot summer to the outbreak, which Rolfs said has been reported in at least five other states. More people are swimming in natural water sources where the parasite naturally lives and then are contaminating pools by defecating in pools or failing to shower properly before swimming, said Utah County health director Joseph Miner.
All but one of Utah County's 700 pools have likely been exposed to the parasite, said Miner. Surveys of affected people indicated that they had swum in one or more of every pool but the Springville City pool in the two weeks leading up to contracting the parasite, Miner said.
"We must be doing something right," Springville pool manager Amanda Stewart said.
While the Springville City pool has an older filtration system than most, the older clientele the lap pool attracts most likely explains the clean record, Stewart said.
The health department first alerted the public to the crypto outbreak on Aug. 17, when there were 150 reported cases. That grew to 422 by this week.
Salt Lake County reported 139 cases in its 1,013 public pools this year. Utah County reported 170 cases in its 700 pools. Davis County reported 70 cases in its 125 pools, and Weber and Morgan counties reported 11 cases in its 100 pools.
David Sundwall, director of the Utah Department of Health, called the new measures "common-sense, light-touch regulation," but he warned that he may be forced to close pools if the outbreak does not subside. He said he would review the outbreak numbers in two weeks.
Facing the possibility that the normally busy Labor Day weekend will be a dud this year, Brad Peercy, aquatics manager at the Kearns Recreation Center, kept a positive attitude.
"It could be worse," Peercy said. "It's not as bad if it's the Fourth of July or 24th."