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Edmond's Pelican Bay 'hemorrhaging' thousands of gallons a day this summer

David McNeese
/
City of Edmond

Edmond’s Pelican Bay Aquatics Center lost about 20,000 gallons of water a day throughout the summer of 2022, and it’s leaking even faster this year.

Our pool still looked beautiful,” the facility’s general manager Marina Wells told Edmond City Council at the end of September. “It's just something that you need to be very aware of, is that we are hemorrhaging water.”

As first reported by NonDoc, the city is considering avenues to renovate or replace the aquatics facility, which served more than 50,000 swimmers this year. Even the cheapest proposed option is projected to cost millions of dollars.

The water loss jumped up 20% between 2021 and 2022. Wells said she doesn’t have the exact numbers yet for this year’s pool season, but she can tell the leak has worsened just from watching the water levels drop overnight if the pool isn’t refilled.

“It's one of those where it's going to get worse if nothing is corrected,” Wells said.

Water level has dropped several inches in a large wading pool.
Marina Wells
/
Edmond City Council Presentation
In her presentation to Edmond City Council, Wells showed two pictures taken 24 hours apart. The left photo was taken on Sep. 8; the water level along the back wall is visibly lower in the right photo, taken at Pelican Bay's post-season Dog Day on Sep. 9.
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Graycen Wheeler is a reporter covering water issues at KOSU as a corps member with Report for America.
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