The debate over the High Level Bridge waterfall, also known as the Great Divide, continues Wednesday as councillors spent a good portion of the morning at an executive meeting hearing from the artist who built the waterfall and Epcor, which operates the waterfall.
The waterfall ran for 29 years during long weekends in the summer before being shut down back in 2009 over concerns that treated water could harm fish.
And at that time, Environment Canada was worried the treated water being poured into the North Saskatchewan could impact fish.
The city says paying for the equipment to de-chlorinate the water feature could cost as much as $700,000, a cost some city councillors seem comfortable with.
The Edmonton Arts Council hopes the waterfall with stay.
"It's part of the city art collection so will not walk away from it. We will do everything we can to conserve it or restore it within reason," said John Mahon with the Edmonton Arts Council.
Another option brought up during Wednesday's meeting, the possibility of reconfiguring the system and pumping water directly out of the river. But the issue with that is it would actually cost more. Epcor says it recently built a similar pump station as a cost of more than $2 million.
"The cost of that pump station was about $2 million dollars and if we needed to do a new pump station we'd need a new intake in the river and I have no idea what that cost would be," Susan Ancel with Epcor.
Some councillors have suggested that the arts portion of funding for the Walterdale Bridge could be used to keep the waterfall running, which is something that will be discussed at a later date.
The city is planning to Environment Canada to investigate any other alternatives to fix it.
With files from Scott Roberts
