The Sacramento City Council is closer to cleaning up several duck ponds after dangerously high levels of bacteria were detected. The ponds themselves are also badly in need of repair.

But the restoration cannot happen overnight. There are a lot of wildlife species who call the pond home and some say moving them at the wrong time of year could kill them.

“Crustaceans, there’s fish, there’s heron, there’s geese,” Judy McClaver said, she serves on the City of Sacramento’s pond advisory committee.

Last year, a city study found the pond is a human health hazard because of the level of bacteria.

“It’s 8 times higher than the expectable level in a pond,” McClaver said, pointing out how close the playground is. “Keep the kids from playing in it, and falling in it, any of those, you know, retrieving their toys that blow in it.”

The city’s Director for Parks and Recreation, Jim Combs, agrees, “Those ponds haven’t been renovated in 15, 20 years. They’re over-populated with wildlife.”

Tuesday night, the Sacramento City Council agreed to hire a wildlife biologist to help schedule renovations and cleaning of the ponds.

There’s a small window when the project can begin, without harming the wildlife.

“March is when the turtles come out of hibernation, it’s just right at the beginning of mating season for the water fowl, so there are no nests and there’s no eggs,” McClaver said.

The city had hoped to begin the project in May, but now they will need to take into consideration this new biologist’s opinion.

They still don’t have a time table on when the renovations will be finished.

Parks and Recreation officials told FOX40 getting the ponds at McKinley and William Land Park cleaned out is at the top of their priority list.