18% of water tests over lead limit

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2019 (2601 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s too much lead in city drinking water, according to 18 per cent of water tests conducted by the City of Brandon.

The City of Brandon sold 1,065 testing kits between Jan. 1, 2013 and Dec. 1, 2018. Out of those kits, 1,038 were returned to the city for testing to be done on the property’s water sample. As revealed in a freedom of information request, 187 came back over the federal limit of 0.01 mg of lead per litre of water for maximum acceptable concentration of lead.

Alexia Stangherlin, the City of Brandon’s director of utilities, said she didn’t have statistics to compare the rate of tests over the limit in Brandon to other municipalities, so it was hard to know just how significant the results were. She said the city wants people to be aware of the risk and what they can do about it.

Health Canada says exposure to lead in drinking water over the federal limit can result in cognitive impairment in adults and negative neurological and behavioural impacts in children.

Although the numbers in Brandon show that approximately 18 per cent of water tests come back over the federal limit, Stangherlin clarified it was also hard to tell whether each water test corresponds to a single address, or whether some homeowners tested their water multiple times during the past five years.

Under the city’s lead water services strategy, anyone living in Brandon can buy a water testing kit from the city and have it tested. The cost is subsidized by the city and costs $20 for residents living in a certain catchment area downtown and $45 for residents outside of this area. Homes built before 1950 are most at risk for having a lead pipe in their water system.

Between 2013 and 2015, the city sold 403 tests and processed 393, but in 2016 the number of tests jumped significantly, to 605 and 596 respectively. Stangherlin attributed the one-year jump to the fact that the city introduced its water filter rebate program in 2016. Under the program, residents who live in a certain catchment area downtown and test over the federal guideline can apply to receive a $100 rebate toward certain water filters to remove lead from their drinking water.

In 2018, the numbers dropped across the board. Only 16 tests were purchased by Dec. 1 and 14 returned for testing. Out of those, only one tested above Health Canada’s guideline.

The City of Brandon previously told The Brandon Sun that 45 people had taken advantage of the filter rebate program, 142 fewer than the aggregate number of tests over the guideline. Stangherlin said the city would have liked to see the two numbers identical or close together, as it would mean more affected people are protected from lead exposure.

“We just don’t know what people have chosen to do, but we would have expected that the numbers be closer together, certainly.”

The City of Brandon also has a program to share the cost of replacing lead pipes with homeowners. According to a City of Brandon spokeswoman, the city will pay 50 per cent of the cost of replacing the pipe on the city’s side of the property line, but the home owner is responsible for 100 per cent of the cost of replacing the piece on their side of the property line.

She said the city doesn’t know and doesn’t keep track of how many people decide to remove the lead part themselves and so doesn’t know what remedies people might have done on their own, without involving the municipality.

Stangherlin said the city wants the number of tests it processes to be as high as possible so as few people are unknowingly drinking contaminated water as possible.

“We want the number to be as high as possible … We want people to be testing, so we hoped we’d get as high as possible, as much participating as possible.”

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_