2014 YMCA Short Course National Championship
Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina
Tuesday April 1 thru Friday April 4, 2014

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AQUATIC CENTER RENOVATIONS UNDERWAY WITH PLANNED COMPLETION FOR YMCA SC NATIONALS
Greensboro is making a number of significant and substantial changes to their Aquatic Center for 2014 and the 2014 YMCA National Short Course Championship. Among the most noteworthy are:

Air Quality Improvements: Spend any time at an indoor pool and you can probably recognize the "pool smell" of chlorine. But what we actually smell is chloramines; a chemical byproduct of chlorine disinfecting pool water. Swimmer's bodies release organic cells into the pool water and deck by way of skin, sweat, saliva, hair, body oils, and even urine. Obviously the more swimmers, the higher the levels of organic cells. Chlorine is the pool's first line of defense against these organics, and it begins to attack the organics. This chemistry releases chloramines into the water. Chloramines are disinfectant byproducts (DBPs) of chlorine doing its job in the water. As the water is agitated and splashed by the swimmers, Chloramines off-gas from the water and become airborne, where they remain. Chloramines are unavoidable and therefore once the off-gas is airborne, it become entirely an air issue - water chemistry at this point is irrelevant. Since Chloramines are heavier than oxygen, they stay low in the building at pool level, and displace the oxygen.

During long continuous periods of heavy water activity with a large number of swimmers such as our championship with 1600 swimmers competing in prelims, time trials and finals, and two additional pools continuously being used for warm-up/warm-down, Chloramines and air quality are extremely challenging to manage.

To better be able to manage the challenge of reducing the airborne chloramines and improving the overall air quality on the pool deck, Greensboro is renovating their HVAC ((heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system. The change includes the installation of two Paddock Evacuators to collect bad air at deck level and pull it out on top of the roof to exhaust it. This air will not be re-circulate into the pool deck as it is today. Fresh air is then brought in to displace the exhausted chloramine-laden air. With these changes the air flow can be better managed and the quality is improved for swimmers, coaches and officials.

Corridor Expansion: The spectator corridor has been widened and a New Concessions area established, along with the relocation of the Pro Shop to this more convenient area.. A New Ticket window and box office have also been added to the mid corridor spectator entry area.

Colorado Timing Room: Timing and Hytek functions can now take place in the room just of the deck at the start finish end of the championship course. (Next to Production) This improvement will free up more deck and provide a separate area for Meet Admin .

These renovations are very exciting. We are looking forward to the Aquatic Center changes and to another great Championship meet at Greensboro in April

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