Thousands of people could be getting unsafe drinking water in the City of Brandon, Man. due to lead contamination, but municipal officials aren’t certain about the exact number and have declined to publish details of their own sampling results.
The city has only released summaries of their data. They show that since 2013, about 1,000 residents conducted tests to measure lead in tap water in their homes, with 265 samples showing levels higher than Health Canada’s recommended limit of 5 parts per billion (ppb).
This summary of data was released to Global News as part of an investigation into drinking water quality across Canada.
While most major cities in Canada do not publish their detailed test results, Global News, Concordia University’s Institute for Investigative Journalism and other partners were able assemble a collection of 12,000 lead measurements in tap water samples across the country, mainly through freedom of information requests.
Across Canada, the data revealed that 33 per cent of samples had lead levels that exceeded the recommended federal limit.
Brandon stands out as one of the few municipalities that refused to provide its test results in response to a freedom of information request. The city said that its information was stored within its property tax records and that it was unable to extract them from that database.
It added that applicants seeking access to information could complain to a provincial ombudsman if they were not satisfied with responses.
John Jacobson is a resident of one of Brandon’s older neighbourhoods, suspected of having a lot of lead pipes running underground from municipal water mains to homes.
He told Global News he was worried about the issue of lead in drinking water and has started a petition on the issue.
“I did it because I am concerned about myself,” Jacobson said in an interview.
Although his own test results came back fine, he is concerned about the health implications it could have on others.
Lead in drinking water can be detrimental to health. In adults, exposure to lead increases the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, kidney dysfunction, and complications during pregnancy. In children, lead has been linked to behavioural problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and can even result in a loss of IQ points.
The city is unsure of the exact number of lead service lines in Brandon; some estimates have ranged from 1,000 to 5,000.
“That’s a difficult question to answer in that we don’t have records within our archive indicating where lead services were installed,” said the city’s general manager of development services, Patrick Pulak in an interview.
- Canadian man dies during Texas Ironman event. His widow wants answers as to why
- ‘Shock and disbelief’ after Manitoba school trustee’s Indigenous comments
- Canadian food banks are on the brink: ‘This is not a sustainable situation’
- Invasive strep: ‘Don’t wait’ to seek care, N.S. woman warns on long road to recovery
Jacobson’s main concern is over the city’s testing method.
The City of Brandon’s water sampling procedure instructs residents to run cold water from their taps for two minutes before gathering a sample.
Experts say this method is flawed, since it doesn’t necessarily test all of the the water that has been sitting in the lead service line and it doesn’t measure the amount of lead that a person could be exposed to when they consume the tap water.
Today, kitchen faucets have an average flow rate of six litres per minute, several experts told Global News, so running the water for two minutes before taking a sample means you’d collect the 12th litre out of the tap.
But the water that’s been stagnant in the home’s service line is usually the fourth, fifth or sixth litre.
“If you flush the water, you’re measuring the minimum exposure you could ever get,” said Michèle Prévost, an engineering professor at Polytechnique Montréal and one of the world’s leading experts on municipal drinking water systems.
“Actually, you’re missing out on measuring the lead, because lead comes out when water stays in the pipes for extended periods of time between uses.”
However, the city says it chose the time based on how they thought residents would capture water sitting in the lead service lines.
“We always say to the residents, you want to take the sample at the point closest where the water comes into your house. So based on pressures and flows within their distribution system, you do have to run it a little bit to get that water that’s within that service line,” said Pulak, the city official.
“We also wanted to do it first thing in the morning so you’re capturing that water that’s been sitting there overnight.”
The issue of lead pipes in Brandon
In 2013, the city, which has a population of about 50,000 people, identified roughly 5,200 properties that could have lead water pipes.
“We’re gradually getting more and more of these dealt with, but it will certainly be some time before we can say they’re all gone,” said Brandon Mayor Rick Chrest.
Experts say without stronger regulations, detailed information that is needed to solve the problem of lead in drinking water will be difficult to access.
“I’m not surprised that there’s scarce data. It’s unfortunate,” Prévost said.
“Again, without regulations and any controlled monitoring and implementation of regulations and actually enforcement of regulations, you will not get this database and you will not be able to share it.
“It’s that simple.”
No way to mitigate
The City of Brandon currently has no way of mitigating lead, but is looking at adding orthophosphate to its water — a non-toxic substance that forms a protective barrier inside pipes, reducing the amount of lead that can dissolve into the water.
The absence of such a water treatment was at the core of the lead issue during the water crisis in Flint, Michigan in 2015. Federal regulations in the U.S. require mid-size and larger cities to implement such “corrosion control” steps as a way of minimizing lead levels in water.
“That is something that while in this stage isn’t planned to implement orthophosphate dosing into the distribution system, it will happen in later stages of our upgrade,” said Pulak.
Brandon offers a $100 rebate for water filters, and if you live in a high-risk area, they offer lead testing at a discounted rate.
But if residents want to completely mitigate the problem by removing their lead services lines, they’ll have to shell out thousands of dollars.
“It tends to be in older areas with older homes, in areas of the city that may have modest homes and modest incomes, so that is an added challenge,” said Mayor Chrest.
When the city is reconstructing a road, officials will notify residents that they should now consider replacing their lead pipes. The city will replace the lead piping from the water main to the property line, but from the curb to the home will have to come out of the resident’s pocketbook.
That reality is something people like Jacobson say they just can’t afford.
“You can’t sell a house with lead pipes. It’s like a plague. It’s a real estate plague.”
Lead also an issue in Winnipeg’s drinking water
The City of Winnipeg has identified 23,000 properties that could have private or publicly-owned lead service lines. Unlike Brandon, the city has been using orthophosphate in their water for nearly 20 years.
The city is also offering free lead testing to residents on those properties.
“We’ve sent out the 23,000 letters, and we received about 2,500 residents calling for free lead testing, and it’s actually been an overwhelming response,” said Renee Grosselle, the manager of environmental standards for the City of Winnipeg.
“Typically we’ve always offered free lead testing and we don’t get any residents calling,” Grosselle continued. “We get about 10 a year, and now we’re up to 2,500 this year. I think it’s because we sent everybody information just to let them know and indicate what risk there potentially would be.”
At the time of the interview, the city didn’t yet have any numbers for residents who had lead levels higher than 5 ppb. Grosselle says once the city has the results, they will be available to the public online.
Like the City of Brandon, Winnipeg will also replace the lead service line from the water main to the property line, but the rest of the cost is on the property owner.
The province tells Global News it has been working with individual municipalities and public health officials to educate residents of the risks and the options available to them.
“If you live in an older home and an older neighbourhood, in certain municipalities such as Brandon, we know that there’s an elevated risk there,” Municipal Relations Minister Rochelle Squires said in an interview.
“We can absolutely do more to ensure that information is out there when it comes to exposure to lead from drinking water,” Squires added.
“We’re always concerned with the exposure of lead to humans, and we understand the risk, and we’ve worked very collaboratively with Manitobans throughout the province.”
The province says it is “working towards” adopting Health Canada’s new guideline for lead in drinking water.
— with files from Michael Wrobel and Patti Sonntag, Concordia University Institute for Investigative Journalism
Project coordinator: Colleen Kimmett
Produced by the Institute for Investigative Journalism, Concordia University
See the full list of “Tainted Water” series credits here: concordia.ca/watercredits.
Comments