The City of Saskatoon says the city has one of the safest water supplies in North America.
This comes after a national study from a number of news organizations including Global News and universities including Global News and the University of Regina’s School of Journalism identified Saskatoon as one of 11 cities in the country that reported high lead levels in drinking water within the last 6 years.
The report says they interviewed nearly a thousand people and filed more than 700 requests through freedom-of-information legislation to get access to the thousands of municipal water sample test results. The investigative report says these add up to a collection of about 79,000 results since 2004.
The report alleges that in Moose Jaw, Regina and Saskatoon, homes fed by municipal lead service lines averaged 22 ppb, which is parts per billion, and that is four times the national guideline.
The City of Saskatoon held a news conference Monday afternoon at City Hall. That’s where Angela Gardiner, the City’s General Manager of Utilities and Environment provided the media with an update on the City’s 10 year-long project to replace lead water connections.
Gardiner said so far, 2200 connections have already been replaced of the 4900 that were identified when the project first began in 2017.
She adds Caswell Hill and Riversdale have both been identified as having more lead connections than other communities and that the City has been doing significant work in the Riversdale area throughout the last year to replace the area’s lead connections.
The City advises those who live in neighbourhoods that were built before 1950 that may still have lead pipes, to flush the water for at least five minutes. That’s because there’s a greater possibility lead can be present in water left stagnant for 6 hours or more.
During the news conference, it was also noted that the City will continue to pay for 60 per cent of the total costs to replace a lead connection if a homeowners chooses to replace it prior to the City’s schedule.
“We will stiil continue to provide those opportunities for the financing if they choose to, uh, proceed in advance of our program.” said Gardiner.
Homeowners are required to pay for 40 per cent of the total costs to the replace the lead connections. The average total cost to replace a lead connection is in the area of 3 to 4 thousand dollars according to Gardiner.
Lead in the water was discussed during Question Period in the Saskatchewan Legislature, but there were disagreements as to which entities are responsible for improving the situation. Minister responsible for the Water Security Agency, Greg Ottenbreit stressed that the water from the WSA is fine. It’s the homes with lead pipes that have problems.
NDP Municipal Relations Critic,Trent Wotherspoon disagreed, saying there are also lead pipes in the distribution system and he called on the government to come up with a plan to work with municipalities on this issue, rather than just leaving everything status quo.
Moose Jaw and Regina were also on the list of 11 communities across the country identified in the investigation where residents have been exposed to lead levels in their drinking water that exceed federal guidelines.
More on the City of Saskatoon’s project to replace lead water connections can be found by clicking on the link below…
