Leak in winterized pool

[Mike5150]

Hi there. I have an above ground pool that is closed for the winter. Not long after I winterized the pool I realized there was a leak. I can only assume that I tore the liner when I took the stairs out before putting the winter cover on. I was hoping the leak would turn out to be on the side of the pool and not in the bottom, but as time goes on I'm realizing that I don't get that lucky. At this point my pool water is about two and a half to 3 feet below the normal water line (pool is about 4' on the edges and bellied out to about 5' in the center). Since I live near Chicago, I've got a good 2 inch crust of ice on the water and my cover has been mostly pulled in and the gross water on top of the cover is now in my pool and the water is disgusting. I'm not worried about cleaning the pool water come spring time, but I am worried about what I'm going to do if I keep loosing water. Do I need to worry about the sides collapsing if there is no water in there, or are there any other problems I will run into come spring when I try to find and fix the leak? I guess what I'm asking is what I should do at this point.

Thanks for any advice!
Mike

 

[zea3]

The water does provide a lot of the structural strength for the pool, so I would be concerned about potential buckling of the walls. Can you pull back the cover and look inside the pool? Any pictures you can post would also be helpful.

If the pool cover is tight I would be concerned about snow accumulation causing the sides to buckle. Is the cover resting on the ice? If you can see the leak I would try to patch it enough to keep the water level up until spring when you can fix it correctly.

 

[Mike5150]

The pool cover is snapped on with clips around half of the pool and I have water bags sitting on it around the other half of the pool which has a deck around it. As for the water, there is about 2 inches of ice, and the water is completely murky so I can't see anything past the water surface. We are in a bit of a warm spell right now, so hopefully if the weather stays warm enough I might be able to get the cover out of the pool. If the ice doesn't melt enough for me to remove the cover in the next few days maybe I will just remove the water bags and clips and allow the cover to fall in so at least it isn't pulling the sides in at all. I can try to get some pics tomorrow afternoon, but I don't think they will be too helpful. Any other suggestions for me?

Thanks again!

 

[zea3]

So is there about 2 feet of water at the sides or just in the middle?

 

[Mike5150]

It's hard to tell for sure because of the ice, but there is probably about 1' of water around the edges and 2' in the center.