BROWNSTOWN
A new liner that was placed in the main and leisure pools last year at Brownstown Pool was supposed to be airtight.
But since it was installed, the liner of the leisure pool has bubbled up, reaching as high as 18 inches in some spots, said Bethany Brewster, a member of the Brownstown Town Council who serves as a liaison to the parks board.
“When you are in the leisure pool, all of a sudden, you’re walking on the liner, and it was just bubbled up,” she said. “It just had a pocket of water underneath it, and you could tap it down, and then it got bigger and bigger, and then it was down.”
There also have been leaks.
Brewster said officials with the company that made the liner, RenoSys Corp., have told her the problem is either with the ground water or the pool, while a plumber that contracts with the company said there is a problem with the liner.
After pressure testing the gutter system and pumping all of the water out and putting it back in, the issue still wasn’t resolved. The plumber also did some testing.
“We’ve done everything we possibly can, and we’ve done everything they’ve asked of us, and they still say, ‘It’s you, not us,’” Brewster said.
Even though Brewster is no longer on the council because she is moving out of Ward 2, she said she is willing to keep working until the liner is fixed.
“I told the parks board because I’ve been leading this, I said, ‘I will get this resolved before I’m done,’ and I’m going to continue if that’s OK, if I have your blessing,” she told the other four council members.
Brewster said there are leaks under the play feature in the leisure pool, but that’s because it’s 20 years old. That has nothing to do with the leaks under the liner, she said.
“What we think is happening is where the liner is being terminated around the play feature, the water is getting underneath it there, pooling up and then gravity is feeding it down the hill,” she said. “That’s why it would be a slow build. All year long, it’s just a little trickle, and it makes perfect sense because that is where it all started.”
The liner, or PVC membrane, was installed last year at a cost of $85,175. The liner is crafted from a 60-millimeter-thick, custom-textured and reinforced PVC material designed to make a pool watertight.
The liner comes with a 10-year warranty, but some pools have gotten more than 15 years out of one, Brewster said.
RenoSys has installed PVC membranes all over the country, including at pools in Jasper and Indiana University in Bloomington.
Brewster had received a reference letter from IU, saying RenoSys had installed liners on three of its outdoor pools. University officials told her they no longer use algicide and only use chlorine in the pool, resulting in a savings of more than $12,000 per year on operating expenses.
Brewster and pool manager Jamie Temple both thought having the liner installed would keep the pool water balanced more often and cut overall maintenance of the pool in half.
“You’re just kind of thinking, ‘Oh, your pool is basically maintenance-free. You don’t have to paint it every year. You don’t have to go in and pressure wash it. You actually save money in the long run doing it,’” Brewster said. “But then we’ve had nothing but a headache.”
The main pool opened in the 1960s, while the leisure pool was added in the 1990s.
In 2012, the town spent about $300,000 to replace pumps and pipes and refurbish a slide.
In recent years, while inspecting the pool before opening Memorial Day weekend, Temple said parts of the walls and paint have chipped off and rust has been found. She said repairs were made, but they weren’t permanent fixes made by professionals.
The town was spending about $6,000 every other year to paint and fix concrete, so the council decided to install a PVC membrane system to line the pool because it was supposed to last for several years.
Brewster said she hopes RenoSys will agree to reline the pools. She said water is supposed to go in the pools at the end of April to prepare for the season to start around Memorial Day.