Parks and Recreation seeks leak
SKYE POURNAZARI/DAILY FORUM
Recreation Supervisor Shelly Hersh, left, of Maryville Parks and Recreation speaks with ACCO Unlimited employees who work to dig up pipes surrounding the pool at the Aquatic Center on Tuesday. The goal is to find and repair a leak that has caused issues for around 20 years.
The Aquatic Center opened in 1993 and three years later, staff began to notice several tell-tale signs of a leak.
On Tuesday, 21 years later, Maryville Parks and Recreation worked with Maryville Public Works and ACCO Unlimited, a pool supply company out of Iowa, to trench, pinpoint, repair the damage, and stop the leak.
Recreation Supervisor Shelly Hersh with Maryville Parks and Recreation and ACCO Unlimited employees were on site Tuesday morning during trenching.
“From ’97-’98 to now, it (the leak) has steadily gotten worse,” Hersh said. “We’ve done all kinds of things.”
In 1996, staff upgraded to a larger pump to east the loss of water volume. That winter the north side of the aquatic center at the deep end of the pool, a 14-foot area of concrete sunk into the ground.
A year later, staff detected water loss and believed there to be a leak. They replaced the caulking on the pool’s basin seams.
“They actually repaired the concrete,” Hersh said. “Shortly after that they started noticing the water loss. So logically speaking, it would tell you more than likely something happened that winter, like a pipe froze. We have had water loss since then.”
From 1998 to 2005 the existing sump pump system was used to temporarily to recycle some of the water loss that was occurring. However, later in 2005 the system was re-routed to make a permanent system with a larger sump pump to be more efficient.
That system was used to handle the water loss and recycle it back into the pool until 2010, when staff added another sump pump. In 2012 the Parks and Recreation Board approved the replacement of the large sump pump, which malfunctioned, staff believes because of constant use.
Two more pumps were added in 2014 to help maintain the volume of water loss. The next year a visible leak appeared at the end of pool season, indicating a leak in the deep end. A dye test was performed as well as a camera run through the main pipe system and return system. The large sump pump was once again replaced.
This year staff monitored the Aquatic Center closely, made several repairs to the sump pump to keep the facility open for the season, but planned for a serious search and repair.
Maryville Park and Recreation Director Aaron Dobson said they were losing 40 to 50,000 gallons of water per day.
Normal loss per day is 6,000 to 7,000 gallons with people getting in and out of the pool and normal evaporation. The water is not actually lost, but caught in a pump system, he said.
“Our pool is 25 years old,” Dobson said. “That’s not terribly old. But it’s not a new pool either.”
Other pools of the same age in the region lose 20,000 to 30,000 gallons per day. “We’re not too far off from that,” he said.
At peak season, Hersh said the pool holds 450,000 gallons of water. ACCO Unlimited is the Aquatic Center’s regular pool supply company. “They do a phenomenal job,” Hersh said.
After the pool closed for the season in 2017, ACCO came down from Iowa and started the search for the leak.
“Initially, these guys came down before the pool was empty, they were Scuba diving and they went through and did a dye test on all of our seams and inlets,” Hersh said.
After that they let the pool drain and cut out an area where the pressure showed it might be leaking. she said they had considered the sump pumps a possible location for the leak.
“Unfortunately, we got it all done and it wasn’t where it was leaking,” Hersh said. “However, it was the exact spot where the pipes connected to split out the inlet systems in the lower (part of the pool).”
She said they cut that pipe and isolated it to eliminate other areas. A pressure test was conducted on the upper part of the pool and found it is good.
“So, we’ve isolated it,” Hersh said. “It’s in this bottom deep area. Until he gets down to the pipe, we won’t know if we’ve dug up the right part of the concrete though. We’re kind of hoping.”
There is a line of piping for the inlets in the deep end. “That’s the pipe where we think the issue is,” she said. “So, we’re trying to figure it out. We’re hoping this is the side that it’s on.”
She said there is a chance it could be under concrete on the south or west side of the deep end. She said they ran a camera through the piping on the south side of the deep end and didn’t see a problem with the pipe itself. “But the inlets connect and they’re like an inch-an-a-half between the wall and the pipe, that could be the problem.”
She said no matter where the leak is, if the issue in on the south or the west side, they will have to cut concrete and dig down about 12 feet.
“On behalf of the Maryville Park and Recreation Board and our staff, I would like to ensure the community that we are committed to resolving the issues at the Aquatic Center and that it is open and operational for the coming pool season,” Dobson wrote in an email. “We understand what this facility has meant to the community and we want to ensure that future generations can experience the joys of swimming. We take great pride in operating a safe and clean aquatic center, that serves as a place for the entire community to come together at.”
SKYE POURNAZARI/DAILY FORUM
ACCO Unlimited employees work in the deep end and dig to the north side of the of the pool Tuesday morning at the Maryville Aquatic Center.
SKYE POURNAZARI/DAILY FORUM
A large hole cut in the concrete at the bottom of the lower part of the pool is shown Tuesday at the Aquatic Center in Maryville. The hole was cut about a month ago and has been open to the air, which caused the pipe to oxidize. Opening the hole allowed Parks and Recreation staff, ACCO Unlimited and Maryville Public Works to separate and detect in which area of the pool the leak could be.
