High levels of lead found in Montreal homes and schools

Nov. 6, 2019 por Isolda Barrera

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Canada is one of the only developed countries in the world that does not have a nationwide drinking water standard. Even countries that struggle to provide safe drinking water have established acceptable lead levels: India's is 10 ppb and Mexico and Egypt's are 5 ppb, according to those country's government websites.

But hundreds of thousands of Canadian homes have been unwittingly exposed to high levels of lead in their drinking water, according to an investigation that tested drinking water in hundreds of homes and reviewed thousands more previously undisclosed results.

Homes in Montreal, a city an hour north of the U.S.-Canada border, and Regina, are among those affected by the lead results, which exceed lead levels that are in Canada's federal guidelines.

The investigation also found that some schools and day care centers had lead levels so high that could impact children's health. Exacerbating the problem, many water providers aren't testing at all.

But the results were not given by the Canadian government, it was an investigation made by more than 120 journalists from different universities and 10 different media outlets, they were that ones that collected the test results that measured exposure to lead in 11 cities across Canada. Lead levels should not exceed those of 15 ppb (parts per billion), and out of the twelve thousand test that have been conducted since 2014, shows that 33% of them exceed safety guidelines.

Canada is one of the countries that is well known for their clean, natural turquoise lakes, sparkling springs and rushing rivers, so it might not seem rational to do test on the drinking water of the nation, and even when tests are done the results are normally not made public.

Many Canadians who allowed journalists to test their water were troubled when they came back with potentially dangerous lead levels. Some private homeowners said they plan to stop drinking from the tap.

One person mentioned how he had changed the piping in his house years back to avoid the risk of high levels of lead, but of the city piping is a whole other thing, his house tested at 28 ppb. A high school student learned that for four years her school did not inform her of the high levels of lead that were registered at a high of 140 ppb, when she found the reports online. Many complain about how these results were not given and were still allowed to drink and cook with the contaminated water.

Canadian officials where levels were high said they were aware that lead pipes can contaminate drinking water and that they were working to replace aging infrastructure. Some cities, like Montreal, are already working to replace them, tearing up streets and sidewalks with massive and expensive construction. But homeowners are almost always responsible for paying the cost of replacing the section of pipe between their property lines to their homes, a cost that can range from about $3,000 to $15,000, according to provincial studies.

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