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As jokes go, it’s a bit of a groaner.

What does a lifeguard say if they catch you peeing in the pool?

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Urine trouble.

As it turns out, the joke’s punchline could also serve as the title of a new University of Alberta study released Wednesday that employed a unique method to examine how often people might be polluting their local swimming pool.

The results won’t make you feel relieved.

Researchers behind the study estimated that in one 833,000-litre pool — a third of an Olympic-sized pool — swimmers had discharged about 75 litres of urine at the time it was sampled. That volume is roughly equivalent to 20 large milk jugs sold in the grocery store.

In another pool that was half as big, about 26.5 litres of urine was estimated in the water.

“Even though no one would admit to peeing in a pool, obviously somebody has to be doing it,” said study co-author Lindsay Blackstock, a PhD student of analytical and environmental toxicology. “There is no other explanation for that (substance) to be present in the pools.”