Weyburn City Council gave the first reading to a new bylaw concerning swimming pools during Monday night’s meeting. The bylaw came about after it was determined Weyburn was one of the only major towns or cities in the province to not have any regulations in place for privately owned swimming pools. This was discovered when there was an increase in the number of people asking for information concerning the regulations for installing a swimming pool.  

“The bylaw will be focusing on permanent pools, so in-ground pools and above-ground pools that you don’t take down at the end of the season; the ones that stay up throughout the year,” explained Shara-Lee Malcolm. She is the planning and development coordinator for the City of Weyburn. “So, if you buy a kiddie pool or an inflatable pool from, let’s say Walmart or Canadian Tire, and you use it for a weekend and pull it down, it doesn’t apply.” 

The bylaw covers things such as drainage, with a requirement that all swimming pools have a discharge system that drains into the City of Weyburn’s sewer system and not the storm drain system, as well as having an enclosure for the pool that is latched. It also outlines what permits would be required for the pool.  

Given that there are already some privately owned pools in the city, the regulations will not apply to them, at least right away.  

“How it will affect the ones that are already in place, is if you do maintenance work to them,” Malcolm clarified. “So, any maintenance work and then drainage of these pools, then the bylaw will take effect."