An odd affirmation from City Hall Thursday when a press conference was held to remind residents that drinking water is safe.
Reports on the safety of those lines have recently surfaced given their age, and condition. More than 500 kilometres of asbestos cement pipe was laid under the City of Regina. It has a shelf life of approximately 70 years and when the quality deteriorates, it breaks apart. These breaks can release asbestos fibres into the drinking water.
The quantity of fibres released at any given time is unknown, and can depend on a variety of factors, according to Sam Ferris
“I think its going to be specific to the diameter of the pipe, the nature and type of the break, wither is longitudinal or straight across the axis of the pipe, many factors,” said Ferris.
The city does not test for asbestos fibres in the drinking water because it is not required to do so under standards set out by the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment, Health Canada and the World Health Organization. The Environmental Protection Agency in the United States has set a threshold for maximum fibres in their water, but there is no such threshold in Canada.
While it is well documented that inhaling asbestos fibres can be a dangerous carcinogen, Health Canada and the World Health Organization say there is no evidence to suggest ingesting those fibres, through drinking water or other means, creates any adverse health effects.
Relining those pipes is an option the city has adopted to extend the life of the pipes, but also to mitigate the release of the fibres.
“We look at it from a risk based approach and as it ages, that’s one of the factors we use in assessing the risk,” said Sandy Bailey, Water and Sewer Engineering Manager for the City of Regina. “So it’s hard to say that will result in 100 percent of the pipes being relined, but definitely most of them will eventually be relined.”
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What the city does not know, is how many breaks there are currently in the water lines. But a 2005 National Research Council report stated that breaks were increasing at an ‘accelerated rate’ and that the overall system condition is deteriorating.
The city has allocated $2 million in this year’s budget to reline two kilometres of the pipeline. Only 750 metres has been done since they began roughly two years ago. The city says this doesn’t necessarily mean maintaining the pipes will cost $1 million per kilometre.
“That depends quite a bit on the location, the size of the pipe the number of connections on the pipe and it varies quite widely per kilometre,” said Bailey.
Testing the city’s water
City drinking water is tested for a laundry list of contaminants, but absent from that list is asbestos.
In fact, the city says they’ve never tested for it. Why?
“Ingestion of asbestos depending on the fibre length is not considered to be a health hazard or a risk,” said Ferris.
On its website, Health Canada claims:
“There is no consistent, convincing evidence that ingested asbestos is hazardous.”
It also says there is no need to establish a maximum acceptable concentration.
Health Canada’s reasoning stems from a number of studies done in the United States and Canada. But the conclusions Health Canada and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency have found are not the same. On it’s website the E.P.A says:
“Some people who drink water containing asbestos well in excess of the maximum contaminant level for many years may have an increased risk of developing benign intestinal polyps.”
On a broader scale, the World Health Organization says that the adverse effects of asbestos in water are ‘the subject of considerable disagreement.’
The U.S also sets maximum limits on asbestos in drinking water.
The city says they’re aware of the U.S regulations, but defers to the other levels of government to sift through that research.
“We read literature that comes across our desk, but again, we test for what is regulated,” said Bailey.
We asked Health Canada about the U.S policy and they responded only with a statement:
“The onus is on the province to decide which possible contaminants need to be studied or tested for.”
Along with the city, the province spoke to the media today about the safety of ingesting asbestos fibres.
As it turns out, the issue of asbestos will be revisited in the fall, when the provinces and territories meet to talk about water quality again in October.
As for the U.S regulations? The province is also aware of them.
“I think it would be important to realize that you need to look at all and any study, not just any specific study coming forward ant any particular time,” said Ferris. “Because we don’t know how rigorous that study is, we really need the time to look at that and any emerging information.”
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