An example of a lead pipe from an older home (Photo: Alex Monkman)

By rdnewsNOW staff

Safe Drinking Water

City assures safe drinking water in light of study into lead levels

Nov 8, 2019 | 12:00 PM

Despite concerns raised from a study into the levels of lead in Canada’s water supply, The City of Red Deer’s water superintendent says our city’s drinking water is perfectly safe.

Alex Monkman does note, however, that there is a chance older homes in Red Deer could still have lead pipes leading in from water mains.

“That’s where lead would be located. All other aspects of our water system has been lead-free, and has never had lead in it,” he explains.

“Homes built before 1960, that’s when they were putting in lead services, so there would be concerns with that,” admits Monkman. “And they still used lead in soldering in the plumbing in some houses until 1985, so any house before 1985 may contain lead. We have been working on determining if some of these residences have lead since 2010.”

At that time, Monkman says the City sent out 3200 letters to residents that met the criteria for possible lead in their service.

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“We got about 30 per cent response from those residents back then and we’ve continued to work on our program since then,” he explains. “We revamped it a couple of years ago with all the capital projects we’re doing. Specifically, the Riverside Meadows project, just to determine if some of these places have lead.”

Since 2010, Monkman estimates about 30 residents were found to have lead in their water system.

“We’ve worked with those residents,” says Monkman. “Either we’ve replaced their service, which we do replacements of lead services every year, probably about five every year. We also work with the residences to help them mitigate the lead in their water, and we also provide them filters which help reduce the amount of lead in their service until we can come and help them replace their service.”

Since 2018, Monkman says the City has further contacted roughly 1000 residences in Riverside Meadows, Woodlea, Waskasoo, Michener Hill and Downtown to look for any residents that may have lead in their water systems.

“If the City is doing a main replacement or if the City has a leak in the area, we provide a $500 new service for them,” he explains. “If the residence has lead solder, would be the more expensive way, and that’s all in their private side and that’s all in their home, prices can range from $2,000 up to about $10,000.”

Monkman recommends anyone wondering if their system may have lead visit reddeer.ca or contact Environmental Services at 403-342-8750.

In Lacombe, city officials say the drinking water is clean, safe and reliable, noting that it draws water from the City of Red Deer Water Treatment Plant via the regional water line connecting Blackfalds, Lacombe and Ponoka.

Lacombe city staff has conducted lead testing twice a year since 2010 by drawing water samples at the City’s three pump houses and within their respective zones. Test results indicate Lacombe’s drinking water is of excellent quality, with contaminant levels significantly under the federally mandated maximum allowable concentrations.

Recently, Health Canada cut the guideline for acceptable levels of lead in drinking water in half – from 10 parts per billion to five parts per billion. There is an additional requirement to change the location of where water samples are to be taken: it now focuses on water at the customer’s tap.

In response, the City of Lacombe says it is developing new practices for its water management program in order to achieve compliance with the new standards.

In addition, Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) recently provided municipalities with guidance on water sampling protocols for lead (at the tap) and manganese (in the distribution system and source water). The City of Lacombe’s utility operators are in the process of reviewing these guidelines.