There’ll be no more wading around in Burnaby this summer.
The city is draining its wading pools in local parks as part of the Stage 2 water restrictions present throughout the region right now.
“We have to fill them and drain them daily when they’re used,” Dave Ellenwood, Burnaby’s director of parks, recreation and cultural services, told the NOW. “So we’re going to close those.”
However, because the city’s spray parks have user-activated switches, they will continue to operate for now, he said.
The pools were to be emptied by press time, according to Ellenwood.
“We started the process yesterday (Tuesday),” he said. “We’re going to get the signage up that explains why we have to close them, and that’ll probably happen today or tomorrow.”
The city’s wading pools are located in Brentwood, Cariboo, David Gray, Forest Glen, George Green, McGill, Edmonds, Ron McLean, Wesburn, Westridge and Willingdon Heights parks.
The spray parks are at Central, Charles Rummel, Confederation, Ernie Winch, Keswick and Rene parks, and are open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily until September. The Suncrest spray park has been removed but is being refurbished and updated, according to Ellenwood.
“Suncrest is being replaced,” he said. “Hopefully that’ll be done sooner rather than later.”
The Stage 2 water restrictions for Metro Vancouver also affect how often the city’s parks and sports fields can be watered.
“Only the sand-based natural turf fields get irrigated,” Ellenwood said. “If they don’t get irrigated within a two-week span, they die, so on a very limited basis, we would water those. Soil-based fields, no, we won’t be watering those.”
Ornamental flower beds will also be watered on a limited basis, he said. However, decorative fountains are being turned off.
Golf courses can water the greens and tee areas normally, but the fairways can only be watered once a week.
Stage 2 is in effect from July 3 to Sept. 30, unless Metro Vancouver needs to further restrict water use. The city has two weeks to implement all the required changes to its watering systems but is working on getting it done as quickly as possible, Ellenwood said.
Stage 3 restrictions would further limit watering at the city’s golf courses. In Stage 4 of the region’s water shortage response plan, all types of watering are prohibited to conserve drinking water.
Ellenwood said he couldn't remember hitting Stage 4 in Burnaby.
“Everything’s shut down, even our outdoor pools,” he said.
The region hit Stage 3 in 2003, and Stage 4 briefly in 1997.
