Green Pools and Ham
by Lee
I can see the civil liberties argument here, but in general this is probably a good idea.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio wants to have his air posse search for filthy pools to combat the spread of the West Nile virus.
But the County Attorney’s Office says randomly peering into someone’s back yard without prior indication that there is a mosquito problem raises concerns about privacy rights.
“We hope the posse members conducting surveillance will be sensitive to the privacy issue,” said Barrett Lotstein, special assistant county attorney. “Peeping on them from the sky might be disconcerting to some.”
Arpaio, who launched the operation Thursday, said he wants to take a proactive approach to the deadly virus before the season begins.
Once green pools are spotted from the air, ground patrol posse members will identify the residences and forward the information to the county’s environmental services department.
If the pool violates the county health code, the homeowner can face a misdemeanor charge, which carries up to a $500 fine or 30 days in jail.
Sheriff’s spokesman Jack MacIntyre said Arpaio does not need permission from the County Attorney’s Office to protect the health interests of county residents.
“Our personnel is perfectly capable of balancing the privacy interests of individuals with the serious threat to public health that exists with the threat of a West Nile virus outbreak,” MacIntyre said. “The county attorney’s office concedes that nothing in this plan is illegal.”
I don’t know how much intrusion flying over your house to see if your pool is green is going to entail. And if it will prevent sole slob from turning his pool into a mosquito haven, all the better.
Comments
...and if this is a privacy issue, does it also raise a privacy issue if my two story house enables me to look out my second story window and see over your fence?
Heh.. I have planes and helicopters fly over my house all the time. Of course, I live very close to an airport, by choice. Been in this neighborhood my whole life, and I love planes.
Had my pool go nasty on me once too.. was enough so that I knew I was better off paying someone else to take care of it for me. So I have ever since then, and no more problems.
What really amazed me, this being my first pool, is how fast it got nasty. I’d been doing the chemical thing for almost a year (starting in June) and was doing fine. Over the winter I found I could get away with doing it much farther apart (lack of heat and all). The next april, just as the weather was getting hotter again and I needed to ramp up the treatments again, my dog was bitten . I spent 3 days taking care of the dog (had been a bad bite that needed minor surgery and the cone.. plus drugs of course). So I missed doing the chemicals over the weekend.. that Thursday I looked out into the back, and the surface was coated like it was a layer of dirt! Amazing that it went from no signs of anything to a coating of algae in less then a week.
So anyway.. I can understand why they’re thinking of keeping an eye on pools, since just one person letting something like that stay that way can become a hazard for the entire region as mosquitos use the pool to multiply.
I used to live in a neighborhood with one pool that was so bad that the weeds had grown up a yard high all around, and ducks were living in it.
One, I kid you not, drowned.
in another case, a dog thought the algae was grass and tried to walk over it. a friend of mine jumped in to save it and got stuck too, and I had to pull them both out.
Suffice it to say, Bi-County Health got a tip about the mosquito problem, the property was condemned, and a guy with an earthmover came out and tore out the pool.
Last year we had 40 plus cases of west nile here in AZ, and this is a desert where the only places for mosquitos to breed are in stagnant swimming pools. For the most part no one is questining Sheriff Joe’s mosquito flyovers as anything more than a public health measure.
Sheriff Joe also uses chain gangs as punishment for petty crimes, and makes county inmates wear pink underwear.
Is this the Sheriff Joe that wanted to put a ring of deputy checkpoints around the town?
Whether or not it is good policy can be argued. There is no doubt it is constitutional.
Sorry, that was the dissenting opinion. Here’s the controlling opinion:
in another case, a dog thought the algae was grass and tried to walk over it. a friend of mine jumped in to save it and got stuck too, and I had to pull them both out.
heh.. I failed to mention earlier, my dog did the same thing. Note this pic I took of the pool when it was covered over… about 2 seconds after I snapped that, my dog (note the cone due to the bite wound) walked right into the pool. Broke up that nasty layer on top. Luckily I didn’t have to go in, she came right to me and climbed out. And we’re damn lucky that her wound didn’t get infected considering how nasty that water is and the fact that she had an open wound (it was stitched up but had a drain in it).
I hired my pool guy 2 days later…
dk190… all I know is, if the West Nile virus comes to my area of San Diego… I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll get it. I’m allergic to mosquitos; found that out one summer when I was 10 or so and we visited relatives in South Carolina during one of the worst ‘squito seasons they ever had. The mosquitos are attracted to me (I can get multiple bites while people around me get none) and every bite becomes a huge blister compared to most people’s reactions.
Oh I get it, the swamp wetlands can’t be touched, but your pool can be?
I love Sheriff Joe Arpaio he’s the one who started the chain gangs, feeding the inmates baloney sandwiches, gave the male inmates pink clothes to wear, and started the tent cities to end overcrowding.
I don’t see much of a privacy issue given maps.google.com -> Satellite photo view. I don’t think people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the open in their backyard.
Oh I get it, the swamp wetlands can’t be touched, but your pool can be?
Says who? I think people go way too overboard about so-called “wetlands.” We’ve got people going nuts locally over a tiny little stream in a part of a canyon here.. that’s labeled as wetlands. The city’s maintenance people need to keep, and slightly extend, a path that was created to do an emergency repair on a major sewer line in the canyon that serves the whole area. They want to keep the road there so they can do the normal maintenance that wasn’t done before… to keep the massive break that happened a few years ago from happening again. They’re doing what they can to make sure the “wetlands” aren’t damaged, or at least damage is minimized.. but people are still complaining.
Me? I’d rather the sewers be kept up then worry about a trickle of a stream in a canyon.
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If you don’t have a fence up, I can see into your yard. If you don’t have a roof over it, I can look down into it. Oh well.