Alabama Water Park Plans to Reopen This Weekend After Parasite Presence

Cryptosporidium, an intestinal parasite also know as Crypto, caused one Blountsville water park to be closed last weekend.

The Spring Valley Beach Waterpark was forced to shut down operations on Sunday after a recommendation from the Health Department when traces of the parasite were found in the water. Crypto has an incubation period that can live in properly chlorinated water for up to 10 days.

The Mayo Clinic describes Cryto as,

... an illness caused by tiny cryptosporidium parasites. When cryptosporidia (krip-toe-spoe-RID-e-uh) enter your body, they travel to your small intestine and then burrow into the walls of your intestines. Later, cryptosporidia are shed in your feces.

In most healthy people, a cryptosporidium infection produces a bout of watery diarrhea and the infection usually goes away within a week or two. If you have a compromised immune system, a cryptosporidium infection can become life-threatening without proper treatment.

You can help prevent a cryptosporidium infection by practicing good hygiene and avoiding swallowing water from pools, recreational water parks, lakes and streams.

The water park has been very open on their Facebook page, keeping patrons abreast of the reasoning behind the closing and the progress to treat and get rid of the infected water.

Now that all tests have been conducted and finalized by health officials, the 2-acre large water park has been cleared to reopen to the public this Saturday, August 20th.

Spring Valley beach is located at 2340 County Highway 55 in Blountsville, Alabama and features more 10 water slides, the Southeast’s largest pool, a huge Kids water playground, and more.