Montrealers are expressing concern after receiving a warning about tap water from the city Thursday night.
About 360,000 residents received a pamphlet warning that precautions should be taken if they have lead pipes in their homes. That’s the maximum number of people the city estimates could be affected.
The city said homeowners in houses built between 1940 and 1950 should verify if they have lead pipes. Owners of buildings built before 1970 with eight or more units were also warned.
Montreal also wants to replace 60,000 lead pipes on city property by 2026.
Director of water services with the city of Montreal, Chantal Morissette, says the lead is not dangerous.
“All the water coming out of the six drinking water plants in Montreal respect every regulation, even the lead regulation from the Quebec government.”
How to check your pipes
The problem residents could face is locating where the lead may be leaking from.
The best place to start, according to owner of NDG Plumbing and Heating Murray Davis, is your basement or under the house itself. Davis said you need to locate your shut-off valve.
“If you don’t have a new valve, you most likely have the original plumbing which would be the same age as your house,” Davis said. “Remember copper pipes have only been around since about 1950, before that it was all galvanized.”
Galvanized means the pipe is connected to lead and looks grey. (A copper pipe would look brown and turn green over time).
A lead pipe does not echo when you strike it nor does it attract magnets.
For those who don’t have pipes under their homes, they will need to excavate their property to reach the lead pipe. Davis said that’s an expensive endeavor and does not require the service of a plumber.
Residents worried about tap water
Elizabeth Christopher is a new mother with a one-year-old daughter who is worried by the city’s warning.
She just moved to NDG a little over a year ago.
She says her pipes are lead-free but she wasn’t thinking that the city’s pipes would be the problem.
“Up until a couple of days ago we didn’t know we had to take precautions, so I wasn’t careful about what water I gave her,” Christopher said.
Now she and her daughter are only drinking bottled water.
She said she’s not willing to wait 10 years for the city to change its pipes.
“I feel like they need to accelerate their schedule a little bit and perhaps have a little bit more communication with their citizens, because we just feel like we have been hit over the head with this,” Christopher said.
She said the sidewalks on her street were just re-done , but the pipes weren’t.
“If we had received this letter while they were redoing the sidewalk we could have potentially coordinated so that the pipes and the sidewalk could be redone at the same time,” Christopher said. “But as it stands now we have a brand new sidewalk that is going to have to be dug up quite soon to replace the lead pipes.”
The city says citizens will be notified a year in advance when lead water service pipes will be replaced.
For now the city says to use the necessary precautions listed on the pamphlet and website.
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