St. Laurent administration keeping an eye on pool water quality

Summer memories of refreshing dips in the pool, with the cool water bringing sweet relief from the summer swelter are familiar to many, but last year's bad experiences have soured some on the pool experience. A number of boroughs had to navigate troubled waters last summer over water quality and St. Laurent was not able to avoid the tidal wave of bad fortune. On July 29 last summer – the height of the swimming season – four neighbourhood pools closed due to a strike by the lifeguards. With nobody to supervise them, all the adjacent wading pools also closed down.

This year, though, St. Laurent administrators put the focus on their eight outdoor pools and the fountains and play areas for younger children. The pools opened yesterday, and the borough's wading pools will open next Saturday.

St. Laurent mayor Alan DeSousa said as much at the borough's last council meeting. Strenuous analysis, which showed better-than-required water quality, should help avoid situations brought on in years past, he said.

"The tests that were run go even further than the minimum requirements, because we wanted to go a little further than provincial norms require."

A water-quality engineering firm, hired last March, will supervise and make necessary adjustments to the borough's public-pool filtration system throughout the summer. They will monitor the pools to ensure that the quality of the water lives up to provincial safety standards.

The tests will be conducted weekly and will measure four parameters. It's here that St. Laurent's tests exceed the provincial standards, because provincial standards only require measurement of two parameters, twice a month.

With new water-quality standards have come new safety regulations as well. For example, 3-metre springboards have been mothballed and a campaign encouraging better communication between swimmers has been installed.