The inside of the pool at the Student Recreation Center is being resurfaced, but the water won’t be going to waste.

The pool closed on Nov. 1. On Tuesday, Facilities Management began draining the pool, filling a 5,000-gallon fire truck and then transporting that water to septic pumper trucks.

Once the water is in the trucks, it is taken to various places around campus, including Bear Down Field, the UA Mall and Rincon Vista Fields and Facilities to be recycled. To prepare the water for harvesting, the Rec Center stopped putting chlorine in the pool before the pool was drained.

The pool is being redone “”because it’s 20 years old and needs it. Everything has a life expectancy, and the time is at hand to do those repairs,”” said Ron Roberts, senior business manager for Campus Recreation.

Facilities Management is bringing in a contractor next week to began resurfacing the pool. This week, they are focused on getting as much water as possible out of the pool.

Facilities Management Director Chris Kopach estimates the pool holds about 250,000 gallons.

To drain the pool, a fire truck will pump the water from the pool into the pumper trucks.

“”A lot of the times folks will get upset because … the water is just running off the street, but that’s not the case. We’re trying to be real proactive capturing it. You’re going to have some runoff, but that’s a lot water in that pool, and we’re going to try and capture as much as we can.””

The Rec Center pool will reopen in the spring semester.