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Taking the plunge in New York river water (pictures)

With its second campaign nearly wrapped up, Plus Pool is moving closer to the dream of making New York river water clean enough for swimming.

Tim Hornyak
Crave freelancer Tim Hornyak is the author of "Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots." He has been writing about Japanese culture and technology for a decade. E-mail Tim.
Tim Hornyak
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I'll swim Manhattan

Plus Pool definitely hails from the wilder side of crowdfunding. Now wrapping up its second campaign on Kickstarter after initially raising more than $40,000, the project aims to build a floating swimming pool with filtered water from New York's rivers.

The Tile by Tile campaign is aiming to raise $250,000 to construct a 35-foot test pool that would filter East River water ahead of a full-scale version in 2016.

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Out on the tiles

The latest Plus Pool campaign has raised some $230,000 from backers, who will get their names or a message engraved in tiles for the floating leisure spot.
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Plus Pool profile

The Plus Pool is designed to filter up to half a million gallons of river water per day and remove bacteria and contaminants without using chemicals.
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Four pools in one

The cross-shaped, 9,000-square-foot Plus Pool is meant to be four pools in one. Each arm will serve a different purpose at various times: There will be a kids' pool, a sports pool, a lap pool, and a lounge pool. Two arms could also be combined to form an Olympic-size pool. In addition, there would be a surrounding deck for sun bathing and relaxing.
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Big city views

The Plus Pool should have amazing views, provided it ever gets built. If all 70,000 tiles in the deck, walls, and floor are sponsored, its $15 million construction budget will be funded.
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Filters

The 35-foot testbed Float Lab will examine the Plus Pool filtration materials in real river conditions. It will be built by Ollolo in Brooklyn's Navy Yard and will measure water quality across 19 parameters.

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