In the News

This page collects news stories, TV features and videos that show the growing interest in natural swimming pools and swimming ponds across North America: backyard swim ponds, public natural pools, and the people who build and enjoy them.

A Northwest Arkansas pond builder shows a backyard recreation pond in Winslow, Arkansas, from start to finish: excavation, stone walls, entry steps into the water, waterfalls and a planted shelf. The video ends with a walk-through the following summer.

Phoenix builder Zach Balbini records the first nine days of a new natural pool running with no chlorine or other chemicals, covering filter start-up, daily upkeep and the brief algae phase while the filter matures.

A California pond-building team shows how it built a natural swimming pond with custom rockwork and a connected water feature in Tepoztlán, Morelos.

In the Season 3 finale of Magnolia Network's "Building Outside the Lines," Jared "Cappie" Capp and Alex "Sprout" Headley build a heated natural pool at Shortgrass Resort near Spearfish, South Dakota. It uses biofiltration instead of chemicals.

North Minneapolis's Webber Natural Swimming Pool, the country's only public non-chlorinated pool, finished its tenth season. A planted regeneration basin cleans the water, and Park Board staff test it weekly.

In the self-proclaimed "Waterpark Capital of the World," Land of Natura's five-acre lake uses plants, rocks, fish and beneficial bacteria instead of chlorine. The owners say it has opened up swimming for visitors who can't tolerate chlorine.

A regional magazine profiles Tonja Andreatta, who founded Andreatta Waterscapes in Central Point, Oregon. It covers her path from a pond-building workshop to a five-person crew building ponds, streams and waterfalls, including fully functional recreational ponds, across the Rogue Valley.

A look at more Americans building chlorine-free natural pools and swim ponds, with homeowners in San Diego and Moultrie, Georgia. A Cornell pond ecologist notes that chemical-free backyard ponds "can foster biodiversity and be important habitats for a variety of wildlife."