No problems found at pool where four swimmers were stricken

An initial investigation into what led to four members of a girls synchronized swim team being sent to hospitals Monday found nothing relating to water quality or mechanical issues at the Kenmore swimming pool that would explain the incident, Public Health Seattle & King County reported today.

"It does appear that water quality was not an issue at the pool yesterday," said Hilary Karasz, department spokeswoman.

Health-department investigators, at the pool Tuesday, found nothing relating to water quality, air quality or mechanical operations that would explain the event, Karasz said.

"There was no indication chlorine levels were in any way out of normal," she said.

The pool was filled with swimmers doing laps as usual today, visible through floor-to-ceiling windows framing the water.

Investigators now will move to other methods to try to determine what happened at the pool, including interviewing witnesses and victims, reviewing logbooks and other records, Karasz said. That's likely to take several days, she added. Such a review is required by state regulations when such an incident takes place, she said, although the pool remains in operation.

"One thing we can say is there's nothing that's going to put the public at risk," she said.

The incident took place about 5:30 p.m. Monday when the girls, 13 and 14, were practicing holding their breath underwater at a synchronized-swimming practice.

Rachael Hublou, 16, a lifeguard, said she was teaching a swimming lesson on the other side of the pool when she saw the girls' coach jump in fully clothed.

"Then she came out with a girl that was completely limp and blue," Hublou said.

Hublou performed CPR on the girl, and the coach went back into the pool to retrieve two other girls still at the bottom. Two other lifeguards and a pool manager helped the coach resuscitate the three girls, she said.

It wasn't clear where the fourth girl was or what her circumstances were in the incident.

Two of the girls were taken to Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland, where they were treated and released, said Mark Woodward, Evergreen spokesman.

One girl was taken to Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle. Her condition wasn't available. Another girl was taken to Group Health's Eastside campus and is being released today, according to a Group Health spokesman.

The Carole Ann Wald Memorial Pool is located at St. Edward State Park, at the northeast end of Lake Washington. The pool is operated under a five-year contract with the State Parks Department that began in 2004, after the state took over operation of the pool in 2000 from King County, according to parks information. The state then found the pool was too expensive to continue in operation and considered closing it, but entered into the agreement with a nonprofit agency to keep the pool open.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com.

Staff reporter Sonia Krishnan contributed to this story.