Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Epcor began adding orthophosphate at its two local water treatment plants last week, two years later than initially planned, the utility confirmed with Postmedia. This treatment will create protective coatings inside pipes to prevent lead from leaching into drinking water, both for Epcor’s pipes and those of private property owners, in hopes of making sure lead concentration in water citywide meets Health Canada’s standards. It’s expected to take up to six months to take full effect.
The city has made headway on its commitment to improve communication and education on lead service connections (LSC) in Regina with updates to its website and annual mail-out. “It’s very important that we share information with residents and make it as clear as possible and … as easy as possible to get filters, to get lead service connections replaced,” Kurtis Doney, director of water, waste and environment for the City of Regina, said in an interview Tuesday.
Starting in December 2022, EPCOR will add orthophosphate to its treated water to reduce lead. As EPCOR is Leduc’s water provider, this includes our community’s water supply. Orthophosphate is an odorless, tasteless substance that creates a protective barrier on plumbing surfaces to reduce the release of lead in drinking water from all sources, including lead service lines and plumbing. Many municipalities across North America use orthophosphate. It has no negative health effects, and is endorsed by Alberta Health Services and Alberta Environment and Parks.
Several Regina community associations are pushing the City of Regina to replace lead pipes in the city as soon as possible instead of spreading the project over 15 years. City council will consider approving administration’s recommendation to go with a 15-year lead service connection replacement program during Wednesday’s council meeting. This follows city council’s unanimous decision in 2019 to commit to replacing all lead service lines within five years.
Halifax Water is considering an expensive proposal to speed up the replacement of its customers’ underground lead pipes in the wake of a groundbreaking investigation, exposing widespread risk of contaminated tap water in hundreds of thousands of homes in Nova Scotia and across Canada. The utility board will review a report during a meeting on Thursday that cites the Tainted Water series as an impetus for the recommended course of action. The new plan would cost $14 million, but save money in the long run, the report said.
The Montreal Island city of Côte Saint-Luc has some of the worst tap water in the province, according to testing results for lead released through access to information legislation. The test results, compiled by Quebec’s Environment Ministry, show that 46 tap water samples from the Montreal Island city of 30,000 people had more than 10 parts per billion (ppb) of lead over a four-year period from 2015 to 2018.
