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Pool supply shortage hits the Charlotte area this summer

The shortage was heightened after a major chemical plant fire that devastated production capacity in 2021.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Many people are heading into the water this holiday weekend.  

Whether it’s your community or backyard pool the swimming season is still experiencing a chlorine shortage again.  

Facing the same problem last year—many pool supply stores put limits on items and shelves were empty.  

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"I was actually looking at pools last weekend, but I was like I guess you'd have to be in a complex," Lashelle Holt told WCNC Charlotte.

Holt doesn’t have a personal pool, so she and her daughter are headed to a local splash pad.

This may be for the best because some pool owners are still having trouble securing chlorine tablets.  

"It was to the extreme and 2020," Brandon Dockery, Dockery's Pools and Patios owner, said. "At that point, you know, it was really hard to get a lot of stuff."

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Dockery builds pools in the Gastonia area. He’s referring to the 2020 pandemic related chlorine tablet shortage.  

"A lot of people was telling me that, you know, they didn't want to go to public places, they didn't want to go to public pools," Dockery explained. 

That led to more pools being built—and fewer chlorine supplies.  

The shortage was heightened after a major chemical plant fire that devastated production capacity in 2021.  

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Now you can find chlorine tablets on shelves.  But getting large quantities still has its limits. 

"They've kind of changed sizes of the pounds and how much chlorine you can get at one time," Dockery said. "But that's kind of easing off a little bit."

Pool building supplies are still facing shortages.  

"Now we're experiencing, you know, some of the special order stuff," he said. "It's getting hard to get real big delays at that point."

Nonetheless, Dockery says he’s still booked to build more backyard pools this summer.  

Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.


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