A bill that some have dubbed "the Saratoga Springs exclusion" cleared the Senate Tuesday on a 23-6 vote.
SB163, sponsored by Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain, limits the reach of health departments in regulating geo-thermal pools that are co-owned by at least four homeowners or members of a home-owners association.
While health agencies can set minimum safety standards and bacteria levels, SB163 prohibits those entities from regulating water color, clarity or dissolved solids content for geothermal swimming holes.
If pool users get sick after swimming in a spring-fed pool, a health-department test could be requested and professionals would help remedy the situation. But the bill prohibits health agencies from closing the facility or taking action against its owners.
Madsen argued that geo-thermal facilities are not like traditional swimming pools and have been in operation around the state for more than a century.
However, seven of eight geothermal facilities comply with current health codes, but Saratoga Springs does not, said Sen. Pat Jones, D-Holladay.
"This is a swimming pool with a diving board" -- and a lot of kids, Jones said, noting that she worries that under SB163, people would assume it was regulated when it is not.
"I don't know why we should change the legislation statewide when seven of the eight comply," Jones said.
Madsen said that the state's rules are subject to change and that northern Utah's Crystal Hot Springs struggles with similar issues.
SB163 now advances to the House for its consideration.
