Seltzer Pool losing massive amounts of water
SHELBY — Shelby’s Parks system has a water mystery on its hands.
Seltzer Pool is losing water — many thousands of gallons involving the water that’s kept in the pool for maintenance-related purposes during the offseason.
Shelby Parks Superintendent Jerry Marshall briefed Shelby’s Board of Park Commissioners about the situation during their monthly meeting on March 8.
“Since October, I probably have lost 35,000 to 45,000 gallons of water,” Marshall said. “It is not uncommon to lose water, but this is excessive.”
Marshall said that a caulking issue may be involved in the water loss.
“That is what it normally is” when such problems arise, he said, “but there’s not a whole lot of caulk in the deep end.”
“Either that or the hydrostatic valve is not sealing, and we’re losing it that way,” Marshall said of the water loss. “But we’re losing a considerable amount of water.”
He noted that about half of the shallow end of the pool is showing bare.
“The plus side of all of this is we don’t have to get it pumped out” when the swimming season nears. “But the bad side is, we have to figure out how we’re losing it.”
In an interview, Marshall said that people should not be alarmed.
“We lose water all of the time,” he added. “This is an excessive amount for us. It’s more than normal.”
“It would probably be like a half-inch hose running out” continuously, he said in describing the situation. “We might have a hole that big in the caulk or something.”
“We can’t find it until we get the pool drained,” Marshall said of finding the source of the problem.
It’s unclear where the missing water is going.
“It has to go in the ground,” Marshall said.
No flooding is reported in the
area.
“When they first put the pool in, I am sure there is tile,” Marshall said. “That tile probably feeds into either Seltzer Creek or the storm sewer. I don’t know.”
When the pool is drained to prepare for the 2021 season, the caulking will be checked in troubleshooting the issue.
“There are three ways you lose water,” Marshall said. “You get it dragged out with people with their bathing suits, believe it or not. Bathing suits are wet, they get out of the pool, they leave a puddle of water. If you have bad caulk, it can leak around the caulk. Or you get evaporation.”
“Some of this could be evaporation from the sun even if you get a lot of wind coming across there. It’s pretty excessive to be evaporation. I couldn’t believe it would be that amount.”
Marshall was asked if he anticipates a major repair.
“If it’s caulk, no,” he responded. “It’s something we can do. We just don’t know what it is right now. Hopefully, it’s not a hole in the bottom in the worst-case scenario.”