+POOL, the plus-shaped floating swimming pool that has been more than 10 years in the works, has an official home now that New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have announced that the facility will be built at Pier 35, near Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
A miniature version of the revolutionary swimming pool — which is designed to be composed of layers of filter membranes to make the river water safe for swimming — is being built and tested this summer. Results of a three-month filtration and water quality demonstration will show how its innovative filtration system will meet water quality standards for novel and nontraditional beaches without the use of chemical disinfectants. Final testing is scheduled for 2025.
In January 2024, Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams announced that New York State and New York City would collaborate on launching +POOL, a state-of-the-art swimming facility that will float in the waters surrounding New York City. The state and city are jointly funding the first round of +POOL’s demonstration project — to the tune of $16 million — starting this August to provide the data needed to develop New York City’s first water-filtering floating swimming pool to dock in the East River in summer 2025. The breakthrough funding for the project came as part of a statewide $150 million initiative called NY Swims. It’s all part of the state’s plan to provide “equitable access to swimming for all New Yorkers, especially our children.”
The idea for the pool was conceived in 2010, when Dong-Ping Wong brought an idea for a water-filtering floating swimming pool to his friends and fellow designers, Archie Lee Coates IV, Jeffrey Franklin, and Oana Stanescu. The four young designers imagined a future where New Yorkers could engage with the water that surrounds them on a regular basis. Through its design, the four hoped to change the relationship New Yorkers have with their waterways. The team designed their floating pool concept, a plus-shape with four pools in one, and launched the idea on Facebook.
When totally completed, the plusshaped floating swimming pool will filter water through its filtration system cleaning more than 1 million gallons of river water a day without chemicals or additives. In addition to contributing to the health of New York State’s waters, +POOL’s design is adaptable; able to be reconfigured for lap swimming, lounging, watersports, and children’s activities. Each configuration can be used independently, combined to form an Olympic-length pool, or opened completely into a 9,000-square-foot pool for play.
The small-scale version of the filtration system is currently being built, mounted on a 110-foot-by-36-foot floating barge, moored in the waters south of Pier 35. It is composed of the following: 1. Intake Pump. A submersible pump will be suspended in the East River to draw the raw water for the pilot facility at 22 gallons per minute. The pump will discharge into a 500-gallon feed tank fitted with an overflow back to the river. The submersible pump will be fitted with an intake strainer basket (0.5”) to protect against fish passage and larger debris.
2. Pre-filtration. The containerized filtration unit will be fitted with a feed pump to allow water to be drawn from the feed tank to the filtration plant. Prior to the filtration plant, the water is pumped through a 200-micron automatic washing strainer to remove material that could damage or block the membrane filter.
3. Membrane filtration. The prefiltered water is fed into the polymeric ultra filtration membranes, which will treat the water for turbidity, bacteria, particulate organics and some viruses.
4. UV Disinfection. The final treatment step is the disinfection process. This will be achieved by exposing the filtered water to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation.
5. Test Pool. Constructed of stainless steel, the test pool is a fullscale portion of the full +POOL, and will function under the same operating and environmental conditions as the full-scale system and confirm the suitability of materials and components. CFD modeling has been conducted on the full-scale pool to design the key elements reflected in the test pool.
6. Cleaning System. The membranes require periodic washing and spent wash water will be returned to the East River. The membranes will require chemical backwashing (CIP and Maintenance cleans). The chemical backwash water will be stored on board the floating platform for safe disposal at the end of the testing period.
The ultrafiltration system is certified for 4-log removal (99.99 percent removal) of Giardia and Cryptosporidium and 1-log removal (90 percent removal) of viruses.
The idea is to provide a safe place for swimmers to cool off in the summer while simultaneously helping to filter a historically polluted river.
