By Joel van der Veen

DAVIDSON — A growing leak in Davidson’s swimming pool has resulted in a shortened swimming season, as well as questions about whether or not the pool will be able to open in 2016.

Recreation director Trevor Ouellette said Wednesday that the town had been aware that the pool was leaking at the start of the season in June, but the volume of water leaking has grown steadily over the summer.

He estimated that the pool is losing 30,000 litres of water each day, though it hasn’t been determined exactly where the water is getting out.

“We certainly didn’t know the amount of water that we were losing was this much,” he said.

The pool closed for the season on Friday, several days ahead of schedule but late enough to allow the final set of swimming lessons to wrap up.

At the beginning of the season, Ouellette said, it was observed that the pool was losing between half an inch and one inch of water each day.

That’s not uncommon, he added, explaining that such loss can occur through normal evaporation or from the water that splashes onto the deck as swimmers jump in or climb out of the pool.

In the last two or three weeks, the water level in the pool has dipped by multiple inches on a daily basis.

Ouellette said he believes water may be escaping through the pool deck, but added he won’t be able to determine where the leak is until after the pool is closed and further examination can be done.

The leak was discussed during Davidson town council’s meeting on Tuesday as resident Milton Schilling visited as a delegate.

Schilling owns a house at 417 Toronto St., located adjacent to the pool. He told council that he has found water in the dirt basement of the house, adding he believes the pool is to blame.

“Your pool is leaking and it’s running into my basement,” he said. “You’ve got to fix the problem, to a certain extent.”

The Schilling family has owned the house since the 1950s; Milt said he currently has it rented to a tenant.

In recent years the house has had issues with ground water, owing to the high water table in the area, but Schilling said it has never been this wet before. He added that one neighbour has reported his sump pump has run constantly this summer.

Ouellette confirmed Wednesday that he had tested the water from Schilling’s basement in an attempt to determine its origin, but the results were inconclusive.

Asking council how they planned to address the issue, Schilling was told that the pool would not operate in this condition next year.

“We can’t run it another year like this,” said administrator Gary Edom, while Coun. Gerald Kenny said the town would need to investigate once the pool has closed.

“If worst comes to worst,” said Kenny, “people will have to live without the pool for the year.”

Mayor Clayton Schneider said the matter raises several questions, including how much the necessary repairs would cost, which he said is “an impossible question to answer at this point.”

For the full story, please see the Aug. 24 print edition of The Davidson Leader.