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posted by janrinok on Wednesday August 17 2016, @02:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-green-and-smells-of-farts? dept.

After a week of trying to part with green tides in two outdoor swimming pools, Olympic officials over the weekend wrung out a fresh mea culpa and yet another explanation—neither of which were comforting.

According to officials, a local pool-maintenance worker mistakenly added 160 liters of hydrogen peroxide to the waters on August 5, which partially neutralized the chlorine used for disinfection. With chlorine disarmed, the officials said that "organic compounds"—i.e. algae and other microbes—were able to grow and turn the water a murky green in the subsequent days. The revelation appears to contradict officials' previous assurances that despite the emerald hue, which first appeared Tuesday, the waters were safe.

"Of course it's an embarrassment," Gustavo Nascimento, director of venue management for the Rio Olympics, told The New York Times . "We are hosting the Olympic Games, and athletes are here, so water is going to be an issue. We should have been better in fixing it quickly. We learned painful lessons the hard way."

Hydrogen peroxide is sometimes used in pools—often to de-chlorinate them. Basically, the chemical, a common household disinfectant, is a weak acid that reacts with chlorine and chlorine-containing compounds to release oxygen and form other chlorine-containing compounds. Those may not be good at disinfecting pools, but they still may be picked up by monitoring systems.

On Saturday, officials started draining and refilling one of the affected pools—the one used for synchronized swimming, a sport that requires underwater visibility. The 3,725,000-liter pool was refilled with water from a clean practice pool nearby. The diving pool, the first to turn green, is being filtered and treated to clean the waters.

By the end of last week, athletes and media reported that the waters had begun to irritate eyes and smell like farts.


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  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 17 2016, @02:28PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday August 17 2016, @02:28PM (#389125)

    panelist comedian Paula Poundstone said it was probably that chemical they put in swimming pools to indicate the presence of urine.

    That's an urban legend.

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  • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday August 17 2016, @11:29PM

    by Osamabobama (5842) on Wednesday August 17 2016, @11:29PM (#389373)

    Is the urban legend that Paula Poundstone is a comedian? I'm trying to figure out why the blockquote used bold font...

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    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday August 18 2016, @01:53PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday August 18 2016, @01:53PM (#389585)

      The urine-detecting chemical part is the urban legend. I'm pointing out it's maybe not the wisest thing to take anything a comedian says on TV at face value.

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      • (Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Thursday August 18 2016, @07:58PM

        by Osamabobama (5842) on Thursday August 18 2016, @07:58PM (#389716)

        I had grown so comfortable with the status of urine detecting chemicals that it didn't occur to me that people may still believe in them. I had forgotten the lesson of xkcd 1053 [xkcd.com].

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