A wet and wild year-round Sullivan water park

Indoor water park and resort hotel proposed for Town of Thompson

By FRITZ MAYER

BRIDGEVILLE, NY — They’re springing up like geysers all across the country and around the globe. Year-round water parks where water lovers can take slippery slides through serpentine chutes, float on an inner tube down a meandering river, stand beneath huge tumbling buckets of H2O, partake of wave machines and bowl rides, and otherwise enjoy the pleasures of water in an atmosphere maintained at a constant 84 degrees Fahrenheit.

The World Waterpark Association says it is “currently tracking more than 121 projects at new and existing hotels and resorts.” Fourteen new parks opened last year, and some of the new ones are attached to businesses that haven’t had them in the past, such as campgrounds and ski resorts.

If the executives at American Resort Management (ARM) have their way, a new one located off Route 17 in Bridgeville, a few miles south of Monticello, will open by the summer of 2009.

According to a release put out by the company on April 2, the $100 million facility, named The Sandstone Resort at Hudson Valley, will feature a 60,000-square-foot indoor water park and family entertainment center. The complex will also have 350 hotel rooms, along with plenty of shopping and dining opportunities.

Oddly, the release also promised, “one of North America’s premiere spas featuring anti-aging treatments and advanced DNA testing…” Richard Coleman, a VP and spokesperson of ARM, did not return a phone call seeking an explanation to that comment and several other questions.

Industry people attribute the growing popularity of water parks, both indoor and outdoor, to the fact that water parks are safe and geared toward family activities. They also say the rides are getting more exciting.

Local officials have responded with guarded enthusiasm to this tourist-related proposal, one which, for a change, has nothing to do with gambling.

But there are a few areas of concern with these watery family getaway hot spots.

For instance, they usually use quite a bit of water. The planned amount of water use at Sandstone was unavailable at this time, but a similar park uses about 300,000 gallons of re-circulated water. According to a spokesman for the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), if a facility pulls more than 100,000 gallons of water per day out of the environment or if it discharges more than 10,000 gallons per day into the environment, the facility will be required to get a permit from the DRBC. But if the water is re-circulated, a DRBC permit probably won’t be necessary.

But that leads to the question of the ramifications of all that warm water being shared by so many people. According to various press reports, nearly 500 people reported getting sick after visiting Six Flags Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Water Park north of Albany in March. Health officials said the illnesses were triggered by the Norwalk virus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea for a day or two. Three class-action lawsuits have been filed in connection with that incident.

Along that line, the current issue of World Waterpark Magazine advises park owners of how to keep children with diarrhea out of their water features and how to develop an action plan to respond to an accident should one occur.

To keep the germ count down to acceptable levels, some water parks use lots of chlorine, and that too can lead to problems. In March, the CoCo Key Water Resort in Middleton, MA was shut down for nine days after health officials received complaints of skin irritations. Tests revealed higher than permitted chlorine levels. The park has since reopened and instituted new testing procedures.

The Sandstone will reportedly be a partnership between ARM and a couple of local investors, including Gene Barbanti, one of the principals of Hy-R Building Systems of Liberty. Barbanti was not available for comment on this story.