APSP Technical Committee Chair Honored by Sister Publication

From Aquatics International:

While lifeguards serve on the front lines in the effort to protect swimmers, some crucial work is done in the background, too.

Perhaps unbeknownst to many in aquatics, Steve Barnes has played a key role in determining how pools and spas are built, and how some manufactured products are made and tested.

Barnes serves as chairman of the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals Technical Committee, which manages and reviews the organization’s various technical standards, and the individual writing committees for each.

In the volunteer position, he works on several of the standard-writing committees he directs. Since 2014, he has chaired a crucial one — the ANSI/APSP-16 committee, which writes and updates the drain-cover standard used to determine compliance with the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act. In this capacity, he has studied such critical details as how big the grate openings can be without risk of fingers getting stuck in them, how hair enters and becomes tangled in the drain, and how big a drain must be so it can't be blocked by an adult body. And he helped develop the test methods to make sure these products meet the requirements.