Pool inadequacies cost muni $55,000 An inadequate pool filtration system at the Meadow Park Sports Centre is forcing the municipality to come up with $55,000 to upgrade the facility. According to Bill Barratt, RMOW director of parks and recreation, a study by D.W. Thompson Consultants has identified a number of deficiencies in the pool filtration system which will have to be repaired. He says municipal officials are currently talking with the architect for the facility, Vic Davies Architects, to try and recoup the upgrade cash from the original contractor. The report says $40,000 is necessary for immediate priorities to upgrade the ozone filtration equipment in the whirlpool, leisure pool and lap pool and to boost the capacity of the filtration pumps in order to have a faster turnover time for pool filtration. Work will also be done on the air cleaning systems in the pool hall in order to improve air quality. Full-time staff at the pool were experiencing eye, skin and respiratory problems because of the amount of chloramine in the water and air. Chloramine is the result of chlorine mixing with contaminants such as hair, dirt and bacteria. "It's such a great facility that it is unfortunate that this one thing could create problems," Barratt says. Because the filtration system can't handle the volume of swimmers who are flocking to the six-month-old facility, Barratt says the municipality was having to manually drain the pool in order to introduce clean water into the system This process is costing the municipality extra money as the bill for heating the water is very high. "We were having to close the pool every three weeks to dump water and that just is not the way a new facility should be running," Barratt says. "We have a top notch system there, and with the correct upgrades it will have water quality better than many pools in North America." Another $15,000 worth of upgrades have been identified in the report and will be dealt with after the first priority upgrades are completed. A full, detailed report on the inadequacies at the facility will be brought to municipal council Feb. 20.
