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Wading Pool Follow-up
January 23, 2019
At a meeting in the park today, the Toronto/East York parks manager Peter white said that the slippery surface on the wading pool would be removed this season. The general Parks supervisor for this area, Paul Brown, agreed.
Background: read about the history of this problem in the Editor Blog about environmental problems connected with concrete (the rink and the wading pool): link.
July 8, 2016, e-mail from Peter White, Parks general supervisor
"We are committing to the removal of the current surface material of the wading pool in 2017. This will leave the surface as bare concrete with the hope being that it is less slippery than the existing surface.
A water supply issue was discussed where there is not sufficient pressure to operate the cob courtyard or the adventure playground while the wading pool is being filled. Tom Feeney proposed that the line feeding the irrigation system could be tapped to provide a separate feed to the playground and cob courtyard. This will be submitted as a request to be added to the 2017 Minor Capital program."
But this did not happen.
June 24, 2016
Saturday June 24, 2016: five staff caulking the big cracks in the wading pool surfacing
The wading pool had a new surface layer applied during the $227,400 wading pool renovation in June 2009. As well as causing children to slip, this layer is corroding along the old expansion joints of the underlying concrete. After two days of power washing, five staff came today to rip off the frayed surfacing and apply new caulking. Nobody including the workers has confidence that this is more than a very temporary fix.
History
2012: change of wading pool management
Everything has changed, and the new wading pool staff operate separately from all other park program staff. The effects of this change are described in this slide show here. Wading pool use has plumetted.
2015: parents continue to complain about slipping
The "cementicious" surfacing overtop the concrete is still causing kids of slip and fall frequently, but since far fewer kids than formerly are using the wading pool, the injuries are not so many.
April/May 2016
The water leak from the fourth water outlet has become worse. But it's hard to imagine how it can be accessed to fix it -- there seems to be no opening, perhaps the concrete will need to be drilled.
Dufferin Grove wading pool continuous water leak 2016
Dufferin Grove wading pool surface, May 2016
The coating of the concrete pool basin has deteriorated dramatically, right down to the concrete in places. Some parents are speculating that the deterioration is connected to the increased use of chlorine over the past few summers, but it's hard to know.
Re-coated wading pools with the same problem
Bellevue wading pool, April 2016
Christie wading pool April 2016
Nearby pools that retained their plain concrete surface:
Art Eggleton WP
Fred Hamilton WP
Healey Willan WP
Most nearby pools did not get the cementitious coating applied to them, and they don't show any deterioration. The newer type of sealant for the expansion joints seems to be holding up well. Hopefully the Dufferin Grove wading pool can have the coating removed and return to its original non-slip state.
Wading pool history from the May 2016 newsletter.
More maintenance tasks
The leak from the water outlets down to the main wading pool drain has got worse. Also, the drain at the drinking fountain is blocked and so there is a mud puddle where the kids stand to use the fountain. It's overflowed to the point where it makes a second brown stream running down to the main pool drain.
water fountain drain is blocked
water overflowing drinking fountain blockage