Cultus Lake Waterpark has begun reopening in stages, six weeks after an improperly grounded electrical system left a metal handrail energized and sent 12 children to hospital.

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The park reopened part of its grounds on Wednesday, its first day operating since the June 15 incident. Waterslides are running again, but hot tubs remain closed and the section of the park where the fault occurred is still shut.

Technical Safety B.C., the provincial regulator that investigated the incident, says the failure traces back to an earlier expansion. Portions of the electrical system installed during that work “were not properly bonded or grounded,” the regulator said in a statement.

“When electrical faults subsequently developed in a nearby building and light fixture, these grounding deficiencies prevented the proper operation of the circuit breakers, allowing the handrail to become energized,” Technical Safety B.C. said.

The regulator’s on-site investigation is finished, but its full report has no release date.

“To preserve the integrity of our investigation, specific details regarding the incident will be shared in the comprehensive public report once it is complete,” it said.

Technical Safety B.C. said the problem was contained to the southwest section of the park’s electrical system, and that it’s “confident that these conditions are not present in the portion of the park being reopened.” Power has been restored, it said, and repairs in the reopened areas “were completed by qualified, licensed contractors.”

The park, in a statement posted to its website, said the review has widened well beyond the original fault — to lighting installations, metal railings, natural gas and chemical systems, and operating procedures.

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“Any area that reopens will do so only after receiving the necessary approvals from the applicable authorities, Technical Safety B.C., WorkSafeBC, and Fraser Health,” it said.

Hot tubs will stay closed longer than the slides, the park said, because “the inspection methods required for the pool structures are invasive and this will take time.”

Andrew Steunenberg, the park’s chief administrative officer, referred questions to that statement.

For one family whose child was hurt, one question has hung over the reopening: when the faulty work was done, and whether it should have been caught before the season began?

Darin Nielsen, whose daughter Bella was among the injured, said she has recovered.

“She’s doing well,” he said, adding that she has shown no lasting side-effects.

Nielsen said he doesn’t object to the park reopening in stages, as long as regulators have signed off.

“As long as it’s approved by the three authorities, it’s up to parents to decide and accept that,” he said.

Nielsen said he wanted to know whether the non-compliant electrical work was already in place when the park passed a start-of-season inspection, or was carried out afterward — a distinction he said points to who is responsible.

“I want to know who’s to actually blame or take responsibility,” he said.

Technical Safety B.C.’s answer is that its pre-season inspections were never designed to catch a fault like this one. Those annual assessments “focus on operational ride safety, and maintenance logs to verify the operator is meeting the obligations and requirements associated with the safe operation of amusement devices,” the regulator said. They “do not involve invasive diagnostic testing of buried electrical systems or individual handrails.”

The electrical system was a separate responsibility, it said: “The ongoing maintenance, testing and compliance of electrical systems are the responsibility of the site’s field safety representative and owner and are managed under separate electrical safety requirements.”

The defects, the regulator said, “were not visible or easily identifiable and required focused and rigorous testing to identify. This was performed following the incident.”

Nielsen said that for a company of its size, allowing such problems to develop is hard to understand. He said he wants a guarantee it will not happen again.

Safety “is very important,” he said — “well, only if you’re forced to be safe by Technical Safety.”

Nielsen said the affected families have largely held off on deciding what to do next until the full report is out. Technical Safety B.C. has told them they will receive a copy before it’s made public, he said.

oshtohryn@postmedia.com