Engineers’ report paints dismal picture of City Hall pool
Large chunks of concrete are breaking off from Edmonton’s City Hall pool and engineers found the southwest basin corner is sinking.
It’s been operating over capacity, and access to the pool skimming system meant to remove debris from the surface was blocked by lights in the planters and not cleaned in 22 years.
“The plumbing was completely plugged up in some portions with a combination of paint chips, debris and sand,” states a report by engineers Postmedia obtained through a freedom of information request. The lights have since been removed, but the skimming system is still not working.
The fate of Edmonton’s beloved public pool — the only civic wading pool left in the city — is heading to city council for a vote Tuesday.
Council agrees the pool needs to be replaced. The vote will be on whether a similar knee-deep pool should be built, supported by 24hour security if necessary.
Administration is recommending an ankle-deep, granite-bottomed pool with a lighter fountain spray. Water depth would drop to 15 centimetres from the current 40 centimetres.
Edmonton-based WSP Canada completed the pool study in 2016. They found Alberta Health regulations set the capacity at 1,380 bathers per day, based on a requirement for two cubic metres of filtered water per bather.
Summer students counted 5,608 bathers in the pool one summer day, although the average was 1,198.
Because the pool doesn’t have a fence, “there is very little control over whom or what enters the pool,” wrote the engineers.
OPTION 1 — KEEP PEOPLE OUT
WSP Canada priced out three options — rebuilding the fountain and banning anyone from entering at a cost of $900,000; creating fountains with no standing water at a cost of $1.4 million; or replacing the pool with something similar for $2.3 million.
Postmedia submitted a freedom of information request after city communications staff refused to release a stakeholder presentation on the pool changes. Also requested was all correspondence between the city and Gene Dub, the original City Hall architect, and with Alberta Health Services in 2017.
The engineering report was sent to Dub as part of an offer to bid on the renovation project, which ultimately went to another firm. The access to information request did not turn up any comments from the architect on the design city officials are now proposing.
‘UNSATISFACTORY’ LAB TESTS
Alberta Health Services records state there were two weeks with “unsatisfactory” water quality tests during the 2016 season.
On Aug. 26, the provincial lab marked “present” when testing for total coliform bacteria, which gave the pool an unsatisfactory grade.
On July 29, the heterotrophic plate count spiked to 290 from 10 or less every other week. The units of these bacteria were not recorded on the provincial data sheet.
The water quality has been maintained. There were never any microbiological concerns.
In past interviews, provincial medical officer of health Dr. Chris Sikora has said provincial inspections didn’t find water quality issues. “The water quality has been maintained,” he said. “There were never any microbiological concerns.”
ARTIFICIAL ICE
The City Hall pool was originally built with underground brine lines to support artificial ice, prolonging the skating season from Nov. 1 to March 30. But a refrigeration plant was cut from the budget.
City officials propose to restore the brine lines in the renovation project, but an ice plant is still unfunded. It would require renovation to the mechanical room, including fire rating and sealing openings to comply with the building code.
The room also needs a new ventilation shaft, which is difficult because it’s located in the centre of the City Hall basement area.
The existing rink sees more than 20,000 users during a single season.
The engineering report priced several options, including simply installing hard plastic fake ice for $1 million. A portable mat on the fountain bottom to create ice would cost $1.3 million but require a noisy external chiller. The full artificial ice plan would be $3.3 million. Artificial ice can tolerate direct sunlight in weather that’s as warm as 5 C.