![Maria Ellis 20, right played with her brother Da' Macus Ellis 4, at Webber Park pool after it reopened Tuesday July 10, 2018 in Minneapolis , MN. ] JERRY HOLT ï jerry.holt@startribune.com](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/BVCPHX2W6HDZLTVUY5ZFX4EPFU.jpg?&w=1080)
Webber Natural Pool in north Minneapolis has reopened — and will stay open this weekend.
The Minneapolis Park Board said Friday afternoon that its two pools, one shallow and one deeper for open swimming, were opened at 1 p.m. after testing showed the water was safe.
The facility has been closed for 24 days this summer, mostly due to water contamination caused by ducks depositing fecal matter in the pond and swimming pools.
The three-year-old, $7 million pool, which uses natural filtering instead of chlorine to clean the water, opened for the season on June 9.
Park staffers started brainstorming how to steer ducks away from the pools. They installed swan and alligator decoys, mobile bird deterrents and streamers across the regeneration basin, the Park Board said.
New deterrents, such as floating fountains and coyote decoys, are estimated to cost less than $8,000.
The Webber pool was the first of its kind in the nation to be cleaned by cycling water through an adjacent pond. Its 500,000 gallons of water are circulated between the pool and the pond, which has some 7,000 aquatic plants rooted in limestone and granite gravel, according to the Park Board's website.
