Next Fall and Winter Quarters, the Recreation Center pool will close for major repairs, leaving only Campus Pool to serve students and the UCSB swim and water polo teams.

For approximately six months, the Rec Cen pool will be completely drained to allow for re-plastering and repairing of underwater lights. This will be the first time the pool has been drained for repairs since it opened in 1995. In addition, existing pool decks will be removed, and new decks will be installed.

Meanwhile, after more than two months of practicing in the Rec Cen pool, the UCSB swim and water polo teams returned to Campus Pool – the teams’ usual practice location – on Monday, following the completion of needed repairs for their facility.

Rec Cen Aquatics Director Debbie Miles-Dutton said the return of the swim and water polo teams to Campus Pool has not changed the schedule of the Rec Cen pool, but it does mean more lanes are now available for students at any given time.

“We reopened [Campus Pool] this past Monday,” Miles-Dutton said. “All the teams moved back over. It opened up more space that had been available prior to the closure.”

In the recent round of work, the almost 70-year-old Campus Pool was fitted with new heaters, energy efficient pumps and a filtration system. These repairs were made in order to keep it in operating condition during the Rec Cen pool’s closure and until a replacement pool can be constructed.

The eventual location of the new Intercollegiate Athletics Pool, which will allow the area now occupied by Campus Pool to be used for academic space, has not been finalized.

According to Miles-Dutton, the repairs to Campus Pool will allow the Rec Cen pool to undergo its necessary renovations this fall with less inconvenience to students.

“We were pushing [the repairs on Campus Pool] through now so that pool would be in good operating condition,” Miles-Dutton said. “We’re going to be over there next fall, when we have to take the Rec Cen pools down for repair.”
Miles-Dutton said the timing of scheduled repairs to the Rec Cen pool will permit the pool to re-open by Spring Quarter, the most popular time for pool usage.

“Spring Quarter has high student demand for the pool,” Miles-Dutton said. “We anticipate a six month closure over here, [and] Fall and Winter Quarters are a lower demand time.”