The main leak was located in early March in a return line coming out of the pump room. The leak was displacing water to the gutter system of the lap pool, which caused the foundation of the facility to need repair.
Jim Orr, director of Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation, said the leak was noticed when the pool’s water consumption bills were higher than expected.
“The big thing that really brought it to our attention though, was the spike in our water consumption bill — we were using thousands of gallons more than we usually would,” Orr said.
Orr said the process of locating and repairing the leak was lengthier than expected due to the discovery of several leaks.
“We had some pool experts come in, and initially they found that there were a variety of issues that needed repair that could be attributed to the significant amount of water loss, so they began repairing those issues,” Orr said.
Orr said the timeline for the pool’s reopening is uncertain, as they are still deciding how to repair the facility.
“The reopening of the pool will all be dependent upon the recommendations of the engineering firm — we are certainly frustrated with the situation, but hopefully we will have a timeline of the project within the next week to two weeks,” he said.
Orr said the leak has expended $20,000 from invoices thus far and caused the loss of over half a million gallons of water.
