Things at Kailua District Park’s pool haven’t been so ducky.
A sign posted Wednesday read: "CLOSED due to Duck Feces," and that’s been the case since Saturday.
It’s the first time the pool has been shut down for duck feces, and park officials are working to come up with a plan to deal with the ducks, said city spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke.
Although the waterfowl have taken dips and dumps in the Windward pool before, a large group of ducks appeared Saturday, and they have returned every day since.
Pool personnel discovered the ducks and their feces at the start of their Saturday morning shift and have been treating the feces problem with chlorine as they would human feces.
"Our goal is to deter them from entering the pool," a Kailua pool management official said in an email via Broder Van Dyke. "This is the first time in my six-year tenure that we’ve had a problem such as this duck issue."
Lifeguards placed plastic lane lines and toy floats in the water overnight Wednesday to discourage the birds from returning. The lifeguards said they have seen ducks at the pool recently, and they usually arrive at night.
The closure presented a bit of a problem for the Aulea Swim Club, which has 100 kids, ages 7 to 18, who swim there from 5 to 7 p.m. weekdays. (The club pays $1,860 for a three-month permit to use the pool exclusively during those hours.)
The club held practice at the beach for all the kids, but younger kids exercised on land and did not swim in the ocean.
"The first day it was funny," said Lisa Simon, the club’s administrative manager and a parent of a swimmer. "Yesterday and today, it was disappointing."
The nonprofit’s president, Larry Williams, said a woman who feeds pigeons nearby may be attracting the ducks to the area.
He said it appears nothing is being done, and suggested traps.
The city said the ducks are believed to be migratory and protected by federal law, so caution must be used in catching and relocating them, and may require permits to do so. (The city contacted U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Department of Health for guidance.)
"I would think with the chlorination, they could handle duck feces," said a frequent swimmer at the Kailua pool, who had stopped by for a swim Wednesday, and wanted to be identified only as Angela. "They handle human feces."
She wondered why the pool has been closed so often recently for other reasons.
The city said a staffing shortage occurred last week, and bad weather resulted in a pool closure the week before.
