Chemical Imbalance. It Looks Like A Big Chlorine Shortage Is Coming This Summer During Pool Season.

The classic summer destination – swimming pools – is being threatened by a record chlorine shortage.

“It’s been a concern for us,” said Cody Saliture, owner of Texas Pool Professionals in Rockwell, Texas, in a CNBC story.

 Saliture is stockpiling chlorine tablets and seeking answers for his soon-to-be-challened customers.

CNBC reports that a number of reasons exist for the chlorine shortage, including a pandemic-spurred demand (people stayed home and swam in their pools) and a chemical plant fire, which destroyed some manufacturing capacity.

The shortage is likely to include all U.S. states, and it’s serious enough to be called “Poolmageddon,” according to Aquatic Facility Training & Consultants CEO Rudy Stankowitz, a 30-year industry expert and the author of “How to Get Rid of Swimming Pool Algae,” who added, “It’s a chlorine crisis.”

Howell, Mich., pool maintenance operator Allan Curtis sang a similar tune. 

“We started buying early, way early, and stockpiled as much as we could,” he told CNBC. “We won’t last more than probably mid-May, or late May, and we’ll be out of chlorine.”

This is the first time he’s stocked up on chlorine through 30+ years in the industry. He said pool owners will likely resort to powdered chlorine, liquid chlorine and “nonchlorinated shocks and things” this summer.

“And I do believe that all of those are going to literally run out,” he said.

Chlorine, of course, keeps pools free of algae but can keep waterborne disease away from swimmers.

“Chlorine also helps prevent swimming pools from becoming a hotbed for mosquitoes and associated diseases,” Stankowitz told CNBC.

For residents planning to install a pool this year, a saltwater pool may be the way to go. Its health benefits are seen as better than chlorine pools, but it also produces chlorine from salt in electrolysis. It does not replace chlorine; it makes its own.