To the many small children running and splashing among the water spouts of Battery Park City’s West Thames Park, the unintended pool at their feet added extra delight on hot summer days. But to many parents, the standing water meant the threat of disease. And for the state’s Department of Transportation, overseers of the new park’s construction, drainage remained a problem yet to be solved, even as the season drew to a close.

“We’re looking into all kinds of solutions,” said a spokesman for the state’s Route 9A Reconstruction project, which includes the park.  The water would be turned off after the Labor Day weekend, he said, adding that there would “certainly” be a permanent solution by next year.

A few weeks after the new, popular playground opened in May, at West Thames and West Streets, water would no longer pass through the porous soft safety surface material that covers the single drain. The culprit, according to Lisa Weiss, the DOT’s landscape architect in charge of the project, was sand.

A few feet from the water is a sand area and, no surprise, children love to mix the two. “We drilled pilot holes [in the safety surface]. We’ve drilled several more holes. It just immediately fills with sand,” Weiss said.

As officials tried all summer to fix the problem, kids continued to play in the water. In interviews with parents whose children were joyfully romping in the water and sand areas, some said they thought that the pool was meant to be a feature of the park. A few others dismissed the concerns. “I don’t have a problem with it,” one mother said flatly. But many parents worried.

“I tell them to stay away from the water. I don’t want you sitting in the water,” said Lydia Galloza, a West Street resident whose two sons, 3 and 5, were playing nearby. Galloza said she especially worried because there is no bathroom nearby. “They’re small and they can have accidents. It’s a health concern, of course.”

Jessica Dixon said she also stopped allowing her two children to play in the water. And she said she couldn’t understand the parents of toddlers who do. “Okay, dude, diapers leak when they get wet and soggy,” she said. “You can’t let kids in diapers play in that water if that water is just sitting there. And everyone knows it is.”

Weiss said the DOT had considered turning the water off but because of the unusually hot summer they kept it on. Though the water had not been tested, she said, it was believed to be safe.

“It’s not recirculating water, it’s fresh water that comes out,” she said.

Another project official, who asked not to be identified, said he believed the water does not stand long enough to be unhealthy.

“There are probably more germs on play equipment and in the sand pit than in the water,” he said.

Then he added, “We don’t want to see standing water. We want to solve the problem.”