After some debate about its water usage in the midst of restrictions, the Tenterfield Pool will reopen for the swimming season on October 5 thanks to a generous benefactor who is donating water to offset what is consumed by the pool.
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Council chief executive Terry Dodds said that not opening the pool this summer had been discussed but there were concerns about the impact on youngsters learning to swim. As a popular summer activity the pool centre is also seen as an important contributor to the community's mental, social and physical wellbeing.
"There's a lot of people really struggling with the drought, and there's a lot of people who have a had a lot of really hard knocks," Mr Dodds said.
"We don't want to see a situation where we have a year or more of a generation of kids who failed to learn to swim either. That's on the minds of people as well."
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The benefactor, located in the Brisbane Valley, has committed to truck in five megalitres (million litres) of water from their location, which will be delivered directly into the water filtration plant at Tenterfield Dam. With a B-double capacity of 41,000 litres, that's 122 round trips.
The pool takes a megalitre to fill and another 250,000 litres for water conditioning. This leaves an ample allowance for water lost to evaporation and filtration over the summer.
Council staff are currently hard at work preparing the complex for use, including wrangling with an antiquated compressor that may need replacement as parts are hard to come by.
