As a pool owner, you hold the key to countless hours of joy and relaxation, but also significant responsibility. This page offers essential safety tips, maintenance advice and resources to help you become a more informed and responsible pool owner.

Safety Tips

For additional swimming safety tips, visit safekids.org.

Prevent Swimming-Related Illnesses

Pools, hot tubs and water playgrounds with proper chlorine or bromine levels and pH are less likely to spread germs.  

For additional tips, visit the CDC's Healthy Swimming page.

Inspecting Pool Construction

Newly constructed residential pools must be inspected to ensure that they meet the state's requirements for building safety. Union County Building Code Enforcement inspects pool construction projects throughout the County, with the exception of properties inside the city limits of Monroe or Waxhaw. To apply for a permit or schedule an inspection in Union County, please visit our development services portal. Please see these respective links for properties inside Monroe or Waxhaw.  

---

Filling, Maintaining, & Draining Your Pool

Special Messages for Union County Water Customers

Depending on the size of your pool, the cost to fill it with water can double or triple your monthly water bill. The average residential pool holds at least 10,000 gallons of water, which is about the average monthly amount of water use for a family of four people. You can help predict how much it will cost to fill your pool using our Water Calculators; please be sure to include your household's typical monthly water usage as well as the estimated capacity of your pool. Please be aware that - although your typical charge for wastewater services is based on your metered water usage - Union County Water will cap your monthly wastewater usage at 12,000 gallons for billing purposes, no matter how much water you use that month.

Union County Water also has an important message for pool owners to remember when it's time to drain your pool. You may be unaware that draining or discharging backwash from your pool into the Union County sewer system is prohibited by county ordinance (Union County Ordinance Sec. 34-107). This is because pool water has the potential to interrupt our wastewater treatment process. When you drain or backwash the discharge from your pool, an excess of pool water can enter the public sewer system. This can lead to chlorine overpowering the bacteria used to treat wastewater, which creates costly operational issues at our treatment plant until we are able to return the bacteria to normal operating levels. As a public utility, our costs are passed on to our customers, so your cooperation with this guidance is critical to helping us minimize costs. A safe alternative to using the sewer system is to pump the water onto your yard. However, in order to do this, the chlorine level needs to be neutralized so that it won’t hurt the environment. We encourage you to speak with a pool maintenance professional who can give you guidance on using a chlorine neutralizer, an affordable and effective step to ensuring your pool water is not damaging to the environment. When disposing of pool water on your property, please remember to do so in a manner that water will not flow off your property or into a stream or storm sewer. 

As you maintain your pool and/or hot tub throughout the year, you may wish to make a note of Union County Water's annual preventive maintenance period, typically held in March of each year. During this time, Union County Water temporarily switches water disinfectants from the chloramines to chlorine within the distribution systems. We encourage all pool and hot tub owners to seek seek professional advice for appropriate steps to accommodate this temporary change in water disinfection. If you would like to be notified in advance of this annual switch in disinfectants, please email our Customer Service team to ensure that we have noted on your account that you own or operate a pool and/or hot tub. For more information about our water quality, please view our Annual Water Quality Report.