The City of Weyburn announced on Thursday a delay for the reopening of the indoor pool at the Weyburn Leisure Centre, which had been set for Monday, September 9th.
Leisure Services Director Andrew Crowe said this was due to a leak, or leaks, discovered after the pool had been filled.
"Our staff worked extra diligently, we had the place looking amazing, we upgraded some lighting, we had everything clean and ready to go. Sask Health gave us the go-ahead. The pool samples were good. Temperature, everything was good," he explained. "The pool was just looking spectacular and we were excited to open to the public, and then all of a sudden our maintenance crew was downstairs in the mechanical area, and they noticed some water bubbling up. So at that point, we had to begin some investigation."
He said this resulted in different tests being conducted in an attempt to determine the source of the leakage.
"We've had some structural engineers out to take a walk-through and do a bit of an inspection, which just left us with more questions really than anything. So now we've begun some other steps trying to identify where the leaks may have taken place and until we are aware of where the leaks are occurring and the extent of the damage that's been caused by the leaks, we're not able to open to the public."
Crowe said since timelines are still unknown, registration for swimming lessons, which was set to open up today, has been canceled.
"We will announce to the public on a later date when we will hold the registrations and what the updated swimming season will look like."
He said it's hard to speculate at this point, with so many questions arising as a result of the investigation so far. This has also included dye-testing, which involves pouring coloured dye into the areas of the pool where a leak may be occurring, similar to the dye used for finding toilet leaks in homes.
"Unfortunately, that was not successful, and we were just continuing to lose water so we had to drain it all," noted Crowe. "Now we're doing some pressure-testing of our pool lines to see if there are potentially any cracks or breaks to the pool lines which control the main drain and the water jets in the pool basin itself."
A contractor will also soon be bringing equipment to conduct ground-penetrating radar to the entire pool basin to determine if there are any flaws in the structure, like cracks below the tile, as well as the condition under the basin.
He said as more information becomes available, the City will be reaching out to the public and user groups with updates.
"It's really unfortunate. It's really disheartening," Crowe expressed. "Our group worked so hard to get everything running and everything in good shape. And then this happens. We're kind of scratching our heads right now, but we hope that we find out the root cause of the issue in the next week or two, and then we can work through the process of getting the repairs done and the pool back open to the public, because we have a number of user groups that are in that pool pretty much every day of the week."
Not only has this leak affected timelines for those hoping to have their children enrolled in swimming lessons, but the employees are another concern for Crowe.
"We have to worry about keeping them busy and employed and keeping those job opportunities for the teenagers and the young adults in the community that have pretty much lived at the pool of their entire lives and are now our lifeguards and employees, so we're doing what we can to open that facility, that's for sure."
Watch for pool reopening updates on the City's Facebook page and website.