Pool service company disaster. What should I do?

If you have access to a kitchen scale with gram units, the dilution can be pretty accurate.

With the TFT kit you would only need 16 mL (8 mL water and 8 mL reagent) of total solution to read as low as 40 ppm on the indicator, so with a 4:1 dilution you could do 2 grams pool water, 6 grams distilled water and 8mL reagent.
What's the point other then to learn how to measure high CYA. If you're gonna get rid of the water don't waste even 8ml on that.
 
You should not drain a drop of that pool with your high water table. Let the pool company handle it entirely so that their insurance covers any problems or if the pool were to "float".
Yes, I would never drain the pool myself.

I'll need to wait until Friday to see if the Bio-Active product has any effect on the CYA (I don't expect that).
At first, the pool service company said that in case the CYA level didn't drop, they would drain the pool on their dime, which made me think they acknowledged they were responsible for the CYA problem.
Today, they said that the high CYA level might be due to the fact the water was not replaced for many years.
 
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If they have been servicing this pool "for years" then they were responsible for monitoring the water chemistry "for years" and should have corrected it a long time ago. Ask you landlord how long these guys have been in charge of the pool.
 
If they have been servicing this pool "for years" then they were responsible for monitoring the water chemistry "for years" and should have corrected it a long time ago. Ask you landlord how long these guys have been in charge of the pool.
@beachhouse said the Landlord recently bought the house.
 
If they have been servicing this pool "for years" then they were responsible for monitoring the water chemistry "for years" and should have corrected it a long time ago. Ask you landlord how long these guys have been in charge of the pool.

Good point. The landlord bought the house recently, but I will check with him if this service company was already servicing the pool when he bought the house.
 
Yes, I would never drain the pool myself.

I'll need to wait until Friday to see if the Bio-Active product has any effect on the CYA (I don't expect that).
At first, the pool service company said that in case the CYA level didn't drop, they would drain the pool on their dime, which made me think they acknowledged they were responsible for the CYA problem.
Today, they said that the high CYA level might be due to the fact the water was not replaced for many years.
Yeah I am actually rather surprised they even acknowledge the high CYA as a “problem.” You’d think they would just say “Well just look, the pool is clean, right? See you next Tuesday to drop in some more pucks.”
 
What's the point other then to learn how to measure high CYA. If you're gonna get rid of the water don't waste even 8ml on that.
I would be loathe to replace the water for a number of reasons. Out here we live in an environment where neighbors call the police on kids running a slip and slide in their own backyard. I wish that was an exaggeration or fabrication, but it happened to us when a nosy neighbor followed the wetness in the gutter to the property. Also, water can be very expensive with penalties attached for using over a baseline amount or for failing to meet your mandatory 10% reduction.

Filling a 20,000 gallon pool uses as much water as our household would normally take 6 months to use. I've toyed with directing all the raingutters into the pool and use that to keep the salt buildup to a minimum. This last year we got 7 inches of rain, so that would have given me about 11,500 gallons of fresh fill.

The city doesn't care that we've cut the water use on this property by over 90% from the previous owners. Every time they declare a drought you have to cut the same as the neighbor who's still using ten times as much as you do.
 
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In my city (also in california) i have to apply for a pool fill permit before i can fill the pool. They calculate fill rates etc that i'm allowed to do by hour. I think i'm liable for the extra fees etc if i do this but that is how it works. I am considering drilling a well on my property.
 

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I would be loathe to replace the water for a number of reasons. Out here we live in an environment where neighbors call the police on kids running a slip and slide in their own backyard. I wish that was an exaggeration or fabrication, but it happened to us when a nosy neighbor followed the wetness in the gutter to the property. Also, water can be very expensive with penalties attached for using over a baseline amount or for failing to meet your mandatory 10% reduction.

Filling a 20,000 gallon pool uses as much water as our household would normally take 6 months to use. I've toyed with directing all the raingutters into the pool and use that to keep the salt buildup to a minimum. This last year we got 7 inches of rain, so that would have given me about 11,500 gallons of fresh fill.

The city doesn't care that we've cut the water use on this property by over 90% from the previous owners. Every time they declare a drought you have to cut the same as the neighbor who's still using ten times as much as you do.

I'd like to solve the puzzle, Pat.
 
Looking at my well, scratching head. What is a water bill? Now trucking water to fill the pool with the last liner change. That got expensive.

Your equivalent would be powering the well pump. When I ran the numbers that was about the same and in some cases more than paying for city water.
 
When I ran the numbers that was about the same and in some cases more than paying for city water

I don't know. A 1/2 horsepower well pump should push about 600 gallons per kWh. Even at $0.55/kWh that works out to $0.66/HCF of water. Water around here ranges from $2.18 to $5.43/HCF. If I filled my pool with a well pump at night electricity rates it would cost me about $4.50 in electricity. If I filled it with city water it could cost as much as $145.
 
I don't know. A 1/2 horsepower well pump should push about 600 gallons per kWh. Even at $0.55/kWh that works out to $0.66/HCF of water. Water around here ranges from $2.18 to $5.43/HCF. If I filled my pool with a well pump at night electricity rates it would cost me about $4.50 in electricity. If I filled it with city water it could cost as much as $145.

Most well pumps I have seen are 220 volt and draw 15+ amps but those were fairly deep wells. I guess if you are using a shallow well it could be a lot less. My water bill here is @ $60/month. When I filled the pool initially I remember it was about $400 more.
 
I could never live in california just for the amount of water I use weekly to wash our trucks. Let alone water my grass. I would never last.

In my part of CA where we have signficant natural river flow from the mountains (not that that's an excuse to waste it), our water rates are $.95-$1.20/CCF (748 gallons) depending on tier. Filling a 25,000 gallon pool would be less than $40.

It can vary greatly by neighborhood though -- we're served by a large stable public water utility, but there are a patchwork of small private and public water companies that must have been formed for various reasons as part of the suburban growth in the 50s/60s, and some of them (including the house across my back fence that's in another neighborhood) pay much higher rates and have more service issues
 
In my part of CA where we have signficant natural river flow from the mountains (not that that's an excuse to waste it), our water rates are $.95-$1.20/CCF (748 gallons) depending on tier. Filling a 25,000 gallon pool would be less than $40.

It can vary greatly by neighborhood though -- we're served by a large stable public water utility, but there are a patchwork of small private and public water companies that must have been formed for various reasons as part of the suburban growth in the 50s/60s, and some of them (including the house across my back fence that's in another neighborhood) pay much higher rates and have more service issues
I'm over in Antelope and we are serviced by Cal Am. It cost me about $100 +/- to fill our 13.5k gal pool a couple years ago. And that was because of the tiers. I think I hit the third tier that month where I usually stay in the first tier or a little into the second.

I have a friend whose parents live up near Chico in the mountains. Their well just ran bone dry, they are looking at having to drill a new deeper well (can't make the existing deeper because of the septic) to the tune of $60k.
 

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