Four Salt Lake City water venues have closed as part of a public fight against a parasitic outbreak called cryptosporidium.

The city has closed the Seven Canyons Fountains and Rotary Play Park water feature at Liberty Park and the Wedge Fountain and the Gift of Life Donor Fountain at Library Square in accordance with the Utah Department of Health and Salt Lake County's recent recommended restrictions on public pools and facilities.

"Drinking water that contains this organism can cause disease," said Florence Reynolds, the city's water quality treatment manager of public utilities. "It is certainly prudent to discontinue operating these water features, where so many young children congregate, when they may be exposed to an organism that may make them sick."

The water venues are regulated differently from swimming pools and do not have the washing facilities or treatment capacity to meet the recommended levels the health department has set for public pools during the emergency, city officials said.

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Children under age 5 have been banned from public swimming pools in several Utah counties as a result of the outbreak.

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