The fountain pond at City Hall in Barrie was closed Wednesday for the remainder of the season by the city due to vandalism and contamination.
Acts of vandalism and the presence of human waste were cited as the reasons the water has become contaminated. The City of Barrie says the closure of the pond is necessary for the sake of public safety and to allow for proper cleaning and restoration.
The City of Barrie says various products were dumped into the pond and staff have seen people using the pond as a washroom facility on several occasions.
Staff have attempted to treat the pond over the past couple weeks but were unable to bring back the water quality and instead decided to close the pond outright.
The pond will reopen in the winter for skating once colder temperatures allow for recreational use, according to the City.
Its closure comes a day after Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall announced a state of emergency across the city to address homeless encampments.
E. coli has been sampled along Dyment's Creek, which streams adjacent to an encampment that was at the centre of a Barrie Police homicide investigation. Nuttall has previously stated that cleanup of that site will cost millions of dollars.
In late August, testing found E. coli bacteria along four sampling points along the creek, which flows into Kempenfelt Bay. All four points measured over 200 bacteria per 100 millilitres, with the culvert at Innisfil Street sampling a whopping 921.
For beach water quality, the recreational water guideline of 200 E. coli per 100 millilitres is applied to determine if a swimming advisory is posted by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
