They are a popular place for affordable family fun for thousands of Lower Mainlanders, but another local rec centre appears to have maintenance issues.
Global News has obtained a video showing the extent of damage to the exterior wall of a mechanical room attached to the main building, which houses the pool at the Sungod Recreation Centre in Delta.
Building inspector Bruce Hunter has 18 years of experience dealing with mould.
He hasn’t been to the rec centre, but based on the video — in his opinion — the mould poses a potential health concern to the swimmers about 30 feet below.
“If I went in to do that building and I saw that amount of blackness on the wood, I would be immediately going to someone in authority and saying, in my opinion, you should shut this down now, because you have a variety of people, you don’t know their health situations, they are all different, shut it down, get someone in,” says Hunter. “That could be done within 24 hours to take a preliminary test. In the meantime, you’ve got to get everybody out of there.”
A source says the rotted wood was discovered in this condition in August of last year, and it still hasn’t been fixed properly.
Delta’s top engineer says the municipality will be doing the work this spring and according to its experts, there is absolutely no public safety concern.
“Unless you’re going to be sitting on top of our roof and right beside the mould, and the mould spores are leaving the wood, you’re not exposed,” says Greg Scott with Delta Community Planning & Development. “So, there is no exposure to the public, especially the users in the facility.”
Greg Scott says he was trying to get Global News on the roof of the Sungod today, but the city officials were slammed dealing with trying to get another leisure centre open.
Serious public concerns were raised after a wall came crashing down at the Ladner rec centre just three weeks ago.
Rusting bolts were the problem.
Officials say it came as a shock given they do regular maintenance.
Scott says Delta has not done an air quality test at the Sungod, but an expert told him it’s unlikely they would find any mould spores in the pool area.
The municipality says the hatch area overlooking the pool is sealed.
A source says it was open for weeks back in August and September of last year.
Delta has no objection to an air quality test.
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