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Letter to the editor

Current making waves in pool

Residents couldn't figure out what was giving them the tingles in the neighborhood pool. Then they looked at the electric substation next door.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN and RICHARD DANIELSON
Published July 31, 2004

[Times photo: Kathleen Flynn] The pool at Villas of Beacon Groves is about 30 yards from a Progress Energy substation. It's closed until the problem is fixed.

PALM HARBOR - It started with a tingling when someone swam near an underwater light in the neighborhood pool.

Then, one day in June, resident Carol-Lynn Straub said she felt a sting, like a slap on the arm, while playing with her three granddaughters.

"I said, "We don't hit grandma,' " Straub said. "They said, "We didn't do anything.' "

The property manager put her hand in the pool and felt a mild electric current near the light. She called electricians, a pool repair company and finally Progress Energy.

At first, no one suspected the pool's next-door neighbor, a buzzing Progress Energy electric substation surrounded by a 7-foot fence.

"We really thought it was the actual light itself," said Alore Saylor, the property manager at the Villas of Beacon Groves.

Two weeks ago, their suspicions changed and they closed the pool and padlocked the gate.

All 278 neighborhood residents got a letter this week on their front door saying the pool would remain closed while contractors and Progress Energy searched for a source of the current.

"Please keep in mind the electric current is getting stronger and it could be extremely dangerous to enter the pool area," Saylor said in the letter. "Please do not go into the pool area for any reason!"

Despite Saylor's letter, Progress Energy crews believe the current is not getting stronger and is not strong enough to hurt anyone. The pool sits just 30 yards from the fence of Progress Energy's Alderman substation, and engineers are looking in that direction for the source of the problem.

So far, it's a mystery.

"It's highly unusual," said Progress Energy lead engineer Lou Santilli. "And it's complicated by the fact that they are closer to the substation. Not to say we didn't believe them. But this is different."

Santilli, who said he might see a similar case once every other year, said the situation warrants attention, but is not life-threatening.

The amount of electricity in the pool, about 2 milliamps, is five times less than what would typically deliver an electric shock, Santilli said. By comparison, electronic muscle stimulators transfer 5 to 10 milliamps, he said.

"The level right now is very low," said Santilli, an electrical engineer with 25 years of experience. "We're taking an ultra-conservative approach."

The current has not strengthened, Santilli said.

So far, here's what Progress Energy officials say they believe is happening:

Normally, when someone flips a switch, high-voltage electricity flows from the substation in smaller doses to a power pole, where it moves into a home and, for instance, lights a lamp.

As the lamp turns on, electricity returns to the substation to complete the circuit.

In this case, somewhere on that return journey the electricity is hitting a road block, most likely a connector corroded by heavy rains.

The electricity is stopped, and the current needs a release point, or ground.

The electricity then travels to the nearest available location - in this case, the Villas at Beacon Groves' pool. It leaks through a light fixture in the pool and passes through the water.

If crews fix the corroded connector, Santilli said, the electricity should flow smoothly, and the pool won't tingle anymore.

Next week, Progress Energy will start to inspect the connectors on overhead and underground power lines between the pool and the substation, the most probable location of the flaw, Santilli said.

If there are no problems discovered there, the task gets more difficult.

In all, the troubled line runs for 17 miles through North Pinellas and serves more than 1,300 customers.

"This can be a long, arduous process," Santilli said. "And we're taking this very seriously."

The Alderman substation serves about 12,000 customers. Other than residents at the Villas of Beacon Groves, no homeowners are affected, Santilli said.

While crews attempt to isolate and remedy the problem, Santilli said he and others will explore a way to reroute power to the development around the probable trouble spot.

For the president of the neighborhood's homeowners association, the problem is frustrating, but she said the association is doing everything it can to get the problem fixed and protect residents.

"We've worked with Progress Energy and the electrical contractor and this is where we stand," president Anne Kovalcik said. "They seem to be really puzzled."

Meanwhile, she said, "why would we want anyone to go in there and get hurt? That's why it is locked."

[Last modified July 30, 2004, 23:53:25]