Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Fetid swimming pools: the mortgage meltdown’s latest collateral damage
The subprime meltdown, housing market crash and tough economic times have left behind more than broken dreams and empty bank accounts in California. 
It has also meant a growing number of neglected or abandoned backyard swimming pools across Southern California – either because the homes are in foreclosure or because owners can’t afford to maintain them anymore.
Those pools quickly turn stagnant, fetid and foul, bad for summer swim parties or barbecues but perfect as swampy breeding grounds for disease-carrying mosquitoes.
That’s why vector control officials in Orange County have turned to surveillance from the sky, hiring an aerial photography company to conduct flyovers of the area, spotting tell-tale green pools and reporting them back to the agency for action.
