Bond Wire and Pool

[Fred]

I belong to a private swim club. I'm going to call an electrician but I wanted to get some knowledge before calling.

Before I started there someone grounded all the metal items around the pool with a bonding wire. I've been reading up on some of the code for grounding/bonding wire and as I read the code electric items (motors and pumps) around the pool need to be connected to this wire as well as items that could conduct electricity if someone touched it while in the pool completing a/the circuit. We have a slide and dive stand that is made out of metal, out of the water I guess should be connected to the bond wire. But the ladders are in the water they don't have to be connected???? The reason I'm asking some of the grounds to the ladders that enter the pool have been broken by an edger and I want to know if they really need to be connected? They were never connected and someone cut into the concrete to connect them and did a real sloppy job. I have a funny feeling that someone duped the club into spending money to ground everything. Most of which didn't need to be grounded. Thanks. The pool is in NJ.

[SQLit]

Following the NEC: all metal parts with in 5 feet horizontally and 12 feet vertically must be bonded. ( 680.26.5)

Ladders and slides which reside in the concrete deck may be already bonded to the shell of the pool. At least that is how we do them here in AZ.

A ohm meter and some wire with a helper maybe will tell you for sure. Connect the ohm meter into the (i.e.) ladder and the other end to the pool light junction box. If it reads really low or a dead short then it is fine.

The biggest problems that I see are fences, gates, and remodels that encroach into the pool area. New window frames are the biggest offender. ( that I see ).