Skaters, you can kiss your dreams of Victoria Park Lake goodbye.

There isn't going to be winter skating there. And this sad news has nothing to do with climate change.

The other day, you may recall, I urged that the city allow winter skaters back on the lake in Kitchener's most beautiful park. Skating has not been allowed there since 2002.

I argued that this was a public benefit and that the city should help pay for staff to monitor the ice on top of the lake.

But boy, was I ever barking up the wrong tree.

After a reader's email prompted me to do a little investigating, I can report that the water of the lake will always be too warm to create a safe and sturdy layer of ice on top.

That's partly because, a metre under the lake's calm surface, runs a big old trunk sanitary sewer line.

It's encased in concrete. But still, it acts like a giant underwater radiator.

The sewer line has been there for decades, said Greg Hummel, Kitchener's manager of park planning, development, and operations. In the 1990s, he said, it was rebuilt.

But "it does artificially add the heat," he said, and that keeps the lake's water too warm for the reliable deep freeze that safe skating requires.

Victoria Park Lake is so lovely and serene, with its wildlife, pretty bridges and the big gracious trees that surround it, we don't always see it for what it really is.

And what it really is, is a man-made stormwater management pond.

There are many good reasons why stormwater ponds and winter skating don't mix. Waste water from heavy storms, or from industry, or run-off from salty roads, gets into the creek system and pours into the lake. Add lots of duck poop decomposing at the bottom, and you've got quite a steamy stew.

Hummel remembers one day when the temperature outdoors was -30 C, but the water coming down the creek was 4 degrees C.

All the grit and salt washing into the lake adds another problem — "dirty ice" which isn't as stable or strong as the kind that doesn't have impurities in it.

And when water pours in and out of the lake, and levels rise quickly, it also tends to make the ice more unstable.

Hummel tells a story from the late 1990s when skating still happened on the lake. One of the radio stations had a trailer at the lake and announced a prize giveaway. A number of skaters gathered by the trailer, and "all the ice started sinking," he said. That was a little scary.

"I don't know how you get good, solid ice there," he said.

The city has done its best to replace the lost skating opportunity at the park with something safer, even if it's less romantic.

Staff maintain two outdoor rinks at Victoria Park on the field between the lake and the clock tower. One of the rinks is for pickup hockey games and the other one for general skating.

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The staff remove the snow and flood the rink to build up the ice layers. These two are the only city rinks that are maintained by staff instead of volunteers.

The last two winters have been extremely chilly, but normally "if we can get six weeks of skating, that's a good year," Hummel said of the on-ground rinks.

"If we can get through Family Day weekend, terrific."

It may seem to us as if winter's freezing grip is never going to end.

But in Hummel's mind, winter is almost done.

"The problem we run into, when it's -7 and sunny, we will lose ice in the park, even on rinks on the ground," he said. "It's a real battle, some years."

- Skating on lake may be over; Weather makes Victoria Park tradition risky

- Letter to the editor: Let's skate on Victoria Park pond in Kitchener

- Opinion: Protect children's right to skate outside

- Letter to the editor: Return skating to Victoria Park lake in Kitchener

- D'Amato: Restoring Victoria Park rink would be a great way to reconnect with neighbours

- Editorial: Sort out these civic ice follies