UPDATE: Prairie Winds Park water park reopens after concrete caused ‘scrapes, cuts and puncture wounds’
Crews will work as quickly as possible to get to the bottom of problems with the new wading pool at Prairie Winds Park, a City of Calgary official said Tuesday.
A routine test by Alberta Health Services on Monday found a problem with the chlorine balance in the pool. There have also been complaints that children’s feet and hands have been cut by the rough concrete bottom.
The wading pool has only been opened to the public for a week and now it is closed indefinitely.
Doug Marter, manager of capital planning and infrastructure at Calgary Parks, said the chlorine balance problem may be related to the extreme heat the city has been experiencing.
“Probably a combination of the amount of bathers in the pool with the hot weather,” Marter said. “As well, when you get really hot weather, it’s much more difficult to maintain chlorine balance.”
As for the cuts and abrasions turning up on users of the pool, Marter said they put a temporary fix on some of the rougher patches of concrete. However, since there have been more problems and the pool is shut down anyway, they’re going to drain it and take a closer look.
But Marter said they can’t take away all the roughness at the bottom, because it’s a lazy river.
“It’s a lazy river so it has a current. So, it needs to have a broom finish on the concrete so people can have some traction if they want to hold against the current.”
“It’s a fine balance to having the right amount of traction and too rough a surface.”
Marter didn’t have an estimate on how long it will take to make repairs and reopen the pool.
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