Tuesday, August 18, 2026
The City of Calgary announced that in an ongoing commitment to improving safety around storm ponds, the city will be installing additional safety measures at 15 city storm ponds this year beginning in mid-August. Through a review of ponds across The City, these locations were identified as the highest priority for safety enhancements.
Storm ponds are part of The City of Calgary’s stormwater infrastructure and are in many communities across the city. They are marked by caution signs following the perimeter of the pond, reminding people that going into or onto storm ponds is strictly prohibited.
Manager of Stormwater Operations for the city, Nicole Sparks, said it’s the next step in an ongoing pond safety program.
“We’ve done temporary signage in winter and summer… door hangers… direct communication with community associations and schools.”
“The 15 ponds were chosen (by a) combination of field visits and observations of the physical space, including proximity to children, as well as reports about activities in and around the storm pond,” said Sparks.
Safety enhancements will include replacing old caution signage with new signage, installing new interpretive signage to increase awareness of risks, and increasing thorny and dense vegetation to create a barrier to the storm pond. Permanent partial fencing and temporary seasonal fencing will also aid in creating a physical barrier to public access. Storm ponds have been assessed to determine what safety measures will be applied at each pond.
Ongoing field assessments will continue to identify additional storm ponds that require safety enhancements. Current storm pond safety work can be viewed on the storm pond map available on calgary.ca/stormponds.
Featured image: (City of Calgary)
