Ventura County Environmental Health inspectors have been busy checking the 1,600 public pools in the county, making sure they have proper drains and meet other safety requirements.

When pools don’t measure up, the inspectors close them until they comply.

The county has 18 inspector positions, with two of them currently unfilled. Keeping public pools and 4,000 retail food facilities inspected at least twice a year is quite a task, said Elizabeth Huff, environmental health manager for community service.

“Right now we’re focusing on pools,” she said.

A new state law requiring all public pools to be retrofitted with drains that protect swimmers from suction entrapment is one of the reasons the inspectors are on the march this time of year.

“The state law went into effect Jan. 1, but everyone has to comply with it and have their drains retrofitted by July 1,” Huff said.

The state law is similar to a 2008 federal law requiring all commercial swimming pools and spas to comply with the Virginia Graeme Baker safety law that also requires anti-entrapment drain covers and other devices to be installed in public pools.

To find out if public pools have been closed by the health department, visit the website www.ventura.org/rma/envhealth and click on “pool and spa closures.”

Recent pool closures in the area include Hidden Canyon, 118 Via Colinas, Westlake Village; La Quinta, 1320 Newbury Road, Thousand Oaks; Total Woman Spa, 966 S. Westlake Blvd., Ste. 4, Thousand Oaks; Sunset Hills Country Club, 4155 Erbes Road, Thousand Oaks; Oak Creek, 2100 Los Feliz Drive, Thousand Oaks.

The following have reopened: Hidden Canyon, La Quinta and Total Woman.

Pools at Sunset Hills and Oak Creek remained closed as of yesterday, Wed., June 23.