ST. PAUL - While the water in the large swimming pool at the St. Paul Aquatic Centre may have a slightly different colour than many users are used to, it does not pose a health risk, and the pool is open to the public.
CAO Steve Jeffery briefed Town of St. Paul council about the ongoing issue during the May 9 council meeting, referring to it as “water discoloration.” The issue first came up in December of 2021. After “battling a cloudiness issue in the water,” staff received “professional direction to super chlorinate the system over the Christmas Break to clear up the issue.”
Jeffery explained that upon returning from the holiday break, staff found that the water turned green in colour, which presented “an entirely different issue.”
“Through many professional opinions, the manager was assured that the health and safety of the pool users had not been compromised and that we now were just left with green water that could likely be altered without draining the pool.”
Chemical treatment applications that were recommended have not completely cleared up the green colour, and the only way to completely clear up this issue might be to drain the pool, refill, reapply the salt and reheat the entire system.
“This would be quite a costly avenue for the Aquatic Centre, as it would not only cost a significant amount of dollars to go through this cycle but would also shut the pool down for a period of ten days,” explained the CAO. He noted that the swimming pool is fully booked from now until the end of June with swimming lessons, public swimming, and family swims that have all seen “very high” attendance numbers.
“Alberta Health Services (AHS) has been engaged in the conversation around the discoloration of the water,” said Jeffery.
He noted that AHS did issue correspondence on the issue, which stated: “The pool water bacteria samples are satisfactory and the pool water chemistry is all within acceptable ranges. The water clarity is acceptable. At this time AHS has no objections to the use of the main pool.”
Jeffery said the colour has been improving, and the discoloration is possibly due to oxidizing metals in the piping system at the swimming pool, “which needs to be investigated further to determine the source.”
A chemical engineer has sampled the pool water and will be providing the Town of St. Paul with a better determination of the source of the problem in order to make decisions on how to correct and prevent the issue from happening again.
“This chemical engineer should be able to really narrow that down for us, in order for us to make an informed decision... could be the boiler system, could just be a matter of taking out metal lines that are visible and replacing them... the team’s working though,” said Jeffery.
He added, “At this time, the most important message is that the water does not pose any health risk and may continue to be used for public use.”
Welcoming Committee
Town of St. Paul council has agreed to create a sub-committee to welcome new physicians and health professionals to the community.
The Health Professions Attraction & Retention Committee has the opportunity to form a sub-committee, known as the Welcoming Committee, said CAO Steve Jeffery.
Creating the Welcoming Committee would allow for the Health Professions Attraction & Retention Committee to access funding from the Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP) to help with costs.
“It’s to make those connections to soccer or whatever families are needing, or housing opportunities. There is a grant that is offered through RhPAP,” said Mayor Maureen Miller.
A motion to approve the creation of the Welcoming Committee was approved by council, and administration will now draft a terms of reference for the committee.
Annual general meeting
The townhall annual general meeting will be held this week, on Wednesday, May 18, at the Recreation Centre. The AGM will start at 7 p.m., and the town’s auditor will be on hand to discuss financials.
The event is open to the public.
