Maria Droulia and Peter Falgiani have lived in the same NDG home for 27 years, and only recently found out their water contains lead.
“We never got any letter in the mail from the city, we never saw anything from the city,” said Droulia.
“The first time we heard about it was when I heard about it on the news.”
A year-long investigation by dozens of journalists across the country, including from Global News and Concordia University’s Institute for Investigative Journalism, found that information for Montreal residents about how much lead is in their water can be misleading.
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“We’re paying so much money in taxes every year and we don’t even get something as simple as clean water,” said Droulia.
The city has promised to replace 48,000 lead services lines by 2030, and said they’ll offer free filters to people in the meantime. But Droulia and Falgiani didn’t want to wait.
“I would wash my vegetables with the water, then rinse it with bottled water,” Droulia explained.
“I figured I was spending way too much money on bottled water. I might as well get a filtration system.”
Droulia heard about Roberto Brunetti’s company No Bottles on social media. He sells water filtration systems, and says the phone has been ringing off the hook since news broke about lead.
“It’s definitely much busier in the last seven to 10 days,” he explained.
The city recommends using pitchers and filters while waiting for a full pipe replacement. Brunetti sold the the NDG family a four-stage filter system that includes sediment removed, reverse osmosis and activated carbon.
“It removes chlorine, copper, heavy metals, PCBs,” Brunetti explained.
On his website, the four-stage filter is listed at over $1,000.
“Is it expensive? That’s for the customer to decide. We offer installation, we offer free home service to the customer,” he said.
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One of the country’s top water quality experts called it a “luxury product.”
“Reverse osmosis and multiple stage filtration is not necessary to remove lead from water. Much lower cost filters do the job,” said Michele Prevost, a civil engineer from Ecole Polytechnique.
She said reverse osmosis may even remove useful, healthy minerals from the water.
Any filter product that is NSF 53- or NSF 58-certified diminishes lead content in water. There are much cheaper options at your local store, but Droulia and Falgiani have no regrets.
“I just didn’t want to take any other chances,” she said.
She says her husband has been dealing with high blood pressure, one of the possible health effects of lead. They worry for their daughter’s health, too.