It is fineable and a violation of the NJ Watershed Act to discharge "back wash' water in a storm drain. It is considered "black" water. The fine is $27K.

Thats real helpful for someone in Texas.

Ask your county health department.

If you are talking about a DE filter, then yes, it is a code violation to discharge DE backwash into a street or alley that leads to a stormwater inlet. It is also a violation to discharge poolwater that has any chemicals in it. You can however dechlorinate the poolwater and balance the PH to between 6 and 9 and discharge it. Below is a link to a Dallas newsletter with more info.

www.wheredoesitgo.com/media/pdf/SWSummerNewsletterJulSep2007.pdf

There's also a number in there for you to report all your neighbors who are ignoring this code ;-)

The logic behind this is that stormwater systems lead directly to natural streams and rivers with no treatment inbetween. Treated poolwater can have a harmful effect on ecosystems.

I guess part of my confusion is over the term "backwash" and "drainage water"--from reading the link to the Dallas site I guess that backwashing the pool and draining the pool are not the same thing and the water in both instances has different type of chemicals...

my city strictly prohibits putting backwash water into the sanitary sewer--which the Dallas ordinance specifically requires...
and it does not mention anything on the city's permit site about reducing the PH of the pool water before discharging it--although I guess that is in your own best interest so you don't kill your grass or whatever if you discharge on your land

I can understand why discharging into a storm drain can be damaging to the ecology/water system...

I am just wondering how difficult it would be to discharge water that must be drained--what do you do when something like a couple of years ago happens and we have like 30 days of rain in a row...
everyone's pool is discharging water right and left in conditions like that...
heck I could not WALK on my yard without sinking down 4 inches and getting water in my shoes picking up the paper or trying to get the dog to go outside and add her own watery contribution...

of course they should let you discharge it through the sanitary sewer because you are paying for all the gallons you add to the pool on your water bill...

this isn't advice - but my overflow pool line ties into the yard drains that go to a pop up at the curb, when it rains, I can't tell what part of the water is from the yard and which part is from the pool...;-)

We are outside Houston - and we backwash into the house sewer line.

No matter what - check current code in your town and keep a copy.

==I guess part of my confusion is over the term "backwash" and "drainage water"==

Backwash is a term specific to DE filters. The term refers to when you reverse the flow of water through the filter grid to clean it. You open a drain line when doing this so that the backwash blows through the filter and straight out the drain line into the yard. This backwash is treated poolwater plus whatever debris was in the filter grid and many cities don't want that in the storm water system.

Discharging pool water on the other hand is just basically pumping your poolwater out through a hose.

You wouldn't dechlorinate before backwashing (plus backwashing is a more frequent process, it's normal maintenance for DE), so that's why Dallas views the two processes differently.

==my city strictly prohibits putting backwash water into the sanitary sewer--which the Dallas ordinance specifically requires...==

Oh sorry, I thought you said you were in Dallas but looking again I see you said "DFW". You are correct, you should go by whatever your town or city codes state. Most do not allow discharging anything other than sewage into the SS system because doing so overloads the water treatment plant. I'm surprised Dallas allows it.

==what do you do when something like a couple of years ago happens and we have like 30 days of rain in a row.. everyone's pool is discharging water right and left in conditions like that...==

There's so much fresh water (rain water) diluting it that the effects of the overflowing poolwater are negligable on the environment. Usually in those deluge conditions there are bigger problems from the sewage treatment plants flooding and discharging raw sewage into waterways (yuck!)

Just curious, why are you asking? Do you have to repair the pool, or maybe your CYA level has gotten too high and you're doing a partial drain/ refill?

For years the only way I drained my pool was a garden hose to the curb. The last few years there has been a major move in Santa Clara County, CA to limit what type of water you can discharge into the gutter. This even includes water used to wash your cars, (lots of luck enforcing that). Auto body shops were severely impacted since most would use water to wash and wet sand for paint prep.

As it stands now, pool owners are not to drain their pools into the gutter. To avoid any trouble I just had the city install clean out to my sewer line. It only cost about $300 and now all I do is drain directly into the sewer. As for DE backwash I don't know if that is allowed into the sewer line.

we are just considering getting a pool...I checked the city ordinances to see what it said about easements--since an in-ground pool has to go by the easement provisions for building--and see if it said anything about the % of concrete to lot size--some cities here are more strict than others about amount of concrete/decking to ground...

and saw the language about backwashing having to be kept on the homeowners' yard--but I have seen people running hoses and/or the opening cut into the curb for draining a pool...
I did not understand--thought it was a new provision maybe and we had to keep ALL the water we might drain out of the pool on our property---which I guess is not the case...

just did not want to call a pool builder to get info since did not want hassle of getting sales calls...

Gotcha. If backwashing is a problem in your local codes, then go with a conventional filter and you never have to backwash. Backwashing is specific to DE filters. Also, if you go with an SWG you'll never need to drain off any of your water either (unless there's a problem in the pool that needs repair). If you go with tri-chlor chlorination instead of SWG then eventually the CYA levels will exceed 100 and you have to do a partial drain/ refill to get it back down. That's needed every 2 to 4 years depending on various factors.