Sludge Watch ==> Ontario - 36 towns and cities ordered to test tap water for lead

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

You heard it first on Sludge Watch.
We have been alerting the public to the lead in tap water for years.
US residents in older homes should ask the local health unit for testing at 
the tap, too.

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Ontario cities, towns will be ordered to test water for lead

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The Canadian Press

Ontario's Environment Ministry will order 36 towns and cities, including
Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa, to test older homes for possible lead
contamination in drinking water, chief water inspector Jim Smith announced
Tuesday.

Smith said nearly a month has passed since he wrote to every municipality in
Ontario suggesting they test lead levels at taps in homes that may have lead
service pipes or lead solder in their connections, after unacceptably high
levels were found in the city of London.

So far, only Sarnia has reported back after finding two of 14 homes tested 
had
lead levels in tap water above provincial standards, though there are also
reports of problems in Owen Sound and Hamilton.

"I've determined that I should send out orders to a number of 
municipalities'
drinking water systems so I get the information quicker than what I'm seeing
happen across the province," Smith said in an interview.

Smith estimated it would take about one week for each of the communities to 
find
20 homes to be tested for lead in tap water, and perhaps another week for 
the
lab results to come in and get reported back to the government.

He said the data would give the ministry a good snapshot of the situation 
across
the province, and will be the fastest way to help ease public concerns about
drinking water.

"I don't want a lot of time to go by where communities and individuals 
concerned
about this are wondering, 'Well, what about my community? When will these 
test
results be in?'" Smith said.

The opposition parties said Tuesday the Liberal government has been too slow 
to
follow up on the issue of lead in drinking water, especially after it was 
raised
by Justice Dennis O'Connor in his report into Walkerton's tainted-water 
tragedy
of May 2000.

Continue Article

"Justice O'Connor was pretty clear that we should be replacing those lead
services," said NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns. "We should have been
testing at the tap earlier."

Conservative Leader John Tory said O'Connor's recommendations have not been
acted on quickly enough.

"People think under the new regime, post-Walkerton, that they can count on
having safe water, that every step has been taken," Tory said.

"Yet that last step, from the curb to their tap, is not being adequately
addressed, and the lead that they're finding in certain communities is proof
positive of that."

London has issued a warning to pregnant women and children under six not to
drink unfiltered or untested water from homes with lead pipes.

Effects of lead poisoning
Experts say lead in drinking water can cause a variety of adverse health
effects.

In babies and children, lead exposure can result in delays in physical and
mental development, along with slight deficits in attention span and 
learning
abilities. In adults, it could cause kidney problems or high blood pressure.

Many municipalities have been replacing the old pipes, but Tabuns said the
replacement program is proceeding too slowly, especially in older
neighbourhoods.

Most Ontario municipalities will test a home's water for free, but if the
service line from the street to the home has to be replaced, the homeowner 
will
end up paying about $2,000 of the cost, and possibly as much as $10,000.

Experts had thought that flushing the pipes - by running the tap for about 
five
minutes until the water gets colder - would clear any traces of lead, but 
they
now know that doesn't always work