McDonald Park wading pool delayed due to provincial regulations

KAMLOOPS – McDonald Park may still get a wading pool.

The city’s newest spray park was opened July 1, but the new water facility didn’t include a wading pool, which plans originally included. Parks director Byron McCorkell told council yesterday, Aug. 16, provincial regulations have delayed the pool portion of the park.

“In the spring of 2016 the provincial government changed the guidelines with regard to spray parks and wading pools,” he said. “For want of better terminology, they’re not really too excited about wading pools without chlorination.”

Because the city’s plan for the McDonald Park spray park didn’t include a chlorination system and the city had made a commitment to have water moving by Canada Day the spray park moved forward without the wading pool.

There is an area that can be used for a wading pool in the future, McCorkell said, and it’s already depressed with pipes in the ground for when a wading pool is designed. A full chlorination system needs to be discussed and brought to council before a pool can be built.

“We’re going to come back to council with whatever we can do in the future to try to get that wading component created,” he says.

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