The centre closed on Monday for maintenance and the Vincent Community Board decided to spend up to $27,000 on repairs and maintenance to the pool liners and tiles.
Central Otago District aquatic centres manager Gary Easthope said the maintenance was "a bit overdue" and should be addressed now.
The lining of the learners' and main pools needed to be replaced and that would cost about $20,000. The damage to the tiling would cost about $7000 to repair and was caused by seismic movement, he believed, and also by kayakers using the pool as a venue for kayak polo.
He had talked to the organisers of that activity and was confident there were measures in place to prevent that problem happening again.
"A reasonable amount of the damage is seismic, earthquake damage. [The following year] after the pool opened [in December 2002], there's been some sort of movement," Mr Easthope said.
Last week's earthquake did not appear to have caused any additional damage.
"Unfortunately no, in some ways, but fortunately, in other ways."
Deferring maintenance would cause even more problems, he said.
The lining around the main pool and learners pool was split but he was unsure of the cause. If the liner was not repaired there would be seepage and possible corrosion of the pool surrounds.
The aquatic centre will be closed for a fortnight.
Mr Easthope also fielded questions from board members about $65,000 overspent on staffing at the centre.
He said the way the budget was split between casual and permanent staff might be responsible.
He was looking at the way staff were employed and managed and had hired more permanent staff, so the centre was less reliant on casuals to "fill the gaps.".
District development manager Anne Pullar said the annual budget for Molyneux centre staff was $255,000 in 2008 and $209,000 had been allowed this year.
She would expect the figure to be between $250,000 and $260,000 and that was consistent with the Cromwell pool for staffing.
"That is a lot of money - quarter of a million in wages," board member Graeme Bell said.
