Jagged bottom and chlorine spikes cause pool closure

City forced to drain new lazy river facility in Prairie Winds Park to make repairs

Families looking for an outdoor oasis in the city’s northeast will have to wait, even as Calgary’s scorcher of a summer continues.

Alberta Health Services ordered Prairie Winds Park in Castleridge to close Monday after a routine inspection found spiking chlorine levels, raising concerns that the water in the just-opened wading pool wasn’t being continually disinfected.

The closure came just after the city and the province’s HealthLink line began receiving dozens of complaints from families that children had suffered cuts, scrapes and burns on their feet from the park’s lazy river attraction, which last week prompted a 24-hour shutdown. The new aquatic facilities, part of a $12-million makeover to the park, had just opened last Tuesday to the public.

Doug Marter, manager of capital planning and infrastructure for Calgary Parks, said the water has been drained as city crews look to smooth over apparently jagged spurs in the concrete below the lazy river portion, blamed for the injuries to bathers, as well as fix the cause of inconsistent chlorine levels.

“It’s going to take a bit of time — we hope not too long,” Marter said. “It’s been sort of a perfect storm of things coming together at the same time.”

The northeast park has become a hot spot over the last week with temperatures edging into the 30s, with anywhere from 500 to 1,000 bathers a day during that stretch.

Marter said the large crowds, combined with the city’s heat wave, may be behind the chlorine problems but crews are still trying to determine the cause. As for the uneven concrete that required the city to hand out Band-Aids, Marter said the city initially treated some trouble spots last week with waterproof putty, but with the pool drained will get a closer look at the surface and ensure some of the rougher areas are smoothed out.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said despite the hiccup he expects things will get back on track long before any fall chill is in the air.

“It’ll get fixed. You know it’s a brand new thing, it just opened, it’s the first lazy river layout that we have in a spray park in the city and it’ll get fixed,” he said.

“I think it’s just an installation issue — I certainly don’t have any evidence that anybody goofed on it, it’s just a matter of getting the settings and getting the equipment right as far as I understand.”

Marter noted both the wading pool and lazy river are new and thus covered under the project’s two-year warranty, so he doesn’t expect the city will be on the hook for repair costs.

With the water drained, Marter said the city will get to work on the problem to ensure the facility reopens as soon as possible.

However, once the pool is refilled it will have to sit for 72 hours before AHS can perform an inspection on the chlorine levels.

“We won’t open again until all those issues are solved, and we’re hoping to do it as quickly as we can,” he said.