Quote Originally Posted by South_Texas_Sun
But you absolutely.....no way around it.......need a good earth ground! That means 1-3 8' copper stakes in the ground and tied securely to your pool ground lugs and equipment lugs.
I'm an EE as well, and you absolutely do not need an earth ground on a pool system. 2005 NEC had a footnote added to clarify this. The addition of a ground rod can cause stray voltage issues under certain circumstances.

The lugs on the pool and equipment aren't called ground lugs, they are called bonding lugs, and they are used to create an "equipotential plane" which prevents anyone in the pool from coming into contact with any two things that are at significantly different voltages. Ground doesn't enter the equation until the bonding wire is connected to the bonding lug on the pump motor housing, which is grounded via the service lead to the house's service panel ground. Look at NEC 2005 680.26.