POOLS RULE: Summer brings pool time to...

POOLS RULE: Summer brings pool time to the San Fernando Valley, believed to have the world’s greatest concentration of home swimming pools. California has 766,000 of the nation’s 3.7 million residential pools, and the state Swimming Pool Trade and Contractors Assn. figures at least 120,000 of those are in the Valley. “I can’t imagine there’s a place with more pools per capita than the San Fernando Valley,” says Jim McCloskey, editor of Pool and Spa News, a trade magazine.

PATCH AND PROSPER: Valley pool contractors say business is better than ever, booming with quake repair jobs. Homeowners busy with house damage last year now have that under control and they’re flush with insurance company checks. . . . “It’s a good time for everybody in the pool business,” says Bob Entwistle of Canoga Park, owner of Pool Doc, which has hired extra workers.

ULTRA DIP: Say goodby to boxy or kidney-shaped pools. The trend: fancier designs, waterfalls, rock pools with the look of a forest glade and modernistic “infinity” edges, with water disappearing over the rim, like the one Ron and Donna Slates are enjoying (above) in Studio City. “It’s like having a personal, huge painting,” Donna says. . . . Another trend: ozone instead of chlorine. Long preferred in Europe, ozone kills pool contaminants faster than chlorine without giving swimmers sore eyes and green hair, proponents say.

BUZZ WORD: But neglected pools breed disease-carrying mosquitoes. County mosquito control workers scout the Valley door-to-door and from small planes, looking for stagnant, algae-green pools. . . . They’ve found thousands, says ecologist Jacqueline Spoehel, “but there are still some out there that we don’t know about that will produce thousands of mosquitoes.”

PUBLIC WATERS: No home pool? Sixteen city pools open June 24. Admission is 75 cents per child, $1.25 for adults. The city’s newest year-round, indoor pool opened last month at Cleveland High School in Reseda. . . . For information, call 818-765-0284.