Waterloo urges residents to avoid walking on frozen lakes, ponds
Posted Feb 5, 2026 05:00:00 AM.
Last Updated Feb 5, 2026 10:02:32 AM.
With temperatures sitting well below zero throughout most of January and the beginning of February, lakes and ponds in Waterloo Region have appeared frozen for some time now.
This has led to residents walking out onto waterways like Silver Lake in Waterloo Park, something the city says is very dangerous.
“We don’t have a way of knowing how thick it is in any given area, so you’re kind of taking it at your own risk if you’re going to go across waterways or use them for recreational purposes in the wintertime,” said Jessica Kellerman, manager of stormwater operations at the City of Waterloo.
Kellerman noted that salt and debris melt into lakes, ponds, and stormwater catch basins around the city, leading to uneven and unstable ice surfaces that could break under pressure.
Stormwater catch basins, which sometimes look like ponds, have rushing water beneath the surface that also leads to unstable ice surfaces.
There are a number of maintained and groomed ice surfaces for residential use around Waterloo.
“Those are created and regulated by our parks team, they’re not organized on any type of waterway,” said Kellerman.
