In The News Rose Tree Woods Swim Club Is Doing Away With Chlorine New Ionization Purification System Uses NASA Technology. (County Press (PA), Wednesday, April 16, 1997. Pg. 23 Article by: Matthew Zager) A device that helped astronauts travel to the moon has been installed at a Marple swim club. The ionization system at The Rose Tree Woods Swim Club, 423 Candlewood Road, is expected to give bathers a pool of nearly colorless, odorless, and tasteless water. The only chlorine will be the trace amount required by the State Department of Health. The system was developed by NASA when the Apollo project needed a chlorine-free purification system for its drinking water. Chlorine, in a gas state, is highly toxic and could have spill disaster for the project. It will cost the swim club about $10 a year for electrical to run. Water traveling to the pool will pass over two finger-size electrodes made of silver and copper. An electrical current is applied to the electrodes causing silver and copper ions to strip into the water. The copper ions kill algae and the silver kill bacteria. A filter removes the dead organisms. White corpuscles in the human blood stream operate similarly, attacking and removing foreign invaders. The ionization method was first discovered by the ancient Greeks. American pioneers used copper and silver coins to sanitize drinking water on wagon trips across the continent. Gordon Egan, who heads maintenance at the club, said that the system is 100 percent safe. The quantities of silver and copper released are non-toxic to humans and animals and are far below the EPA standards, allowable amounts for drinking water. Egan said. Egan cited several advantages to ionization. Allergic reactions, eye and skin irritations, hair damage, odors, and fading bathing suits all will be eliminated or greatly reduced, he said. Tom Colosimo of Sigma Pool Systems of Gilbert ,AZ - the company which sold the technology to Rose Tree Woods -- said the system has been widely used in public swimming pools in the West since the early 1980s. It is still a novelty in Pennsylvania, however. Egan says the Rose Tree Woods is the first large-volume pool in the county to install it. He said he expects many clubs to follow because the purifier provides an environmentally sound alternative to highly toxic Chlorine. He also said there is a financial advantage. Rose Tree Woods will no longer spend $1,800 a year on chlorine. He said the club should recover the $5,000 installation fee within two years. He said the only disadvantage will be a decrease in swim goggle sales.