Saskatoon accelerates lead pipe removal program

For many homes in Saskatoon, when the water flows onto a toothbrush or into a coffee maker it has already travelled through outdated lead pipes.

"In Saskatoon, we have about 70,000 service connections and, of that, approximately 5,300 are lead service lines," Reid Corbett, director of Saskatoon Water, said on CBC's Saskatoon Morning Friday.

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About 80 per cent of the lead service lines, which are water pipes that link the house to the main water supply, are in neighbourhoods built prior to 1940, he added.

Lead was commonly used in a variety of products, including drinking water systems, for years because it was easy to shape and resistant to corrosion.

The National Plumbing Code of Canada allowed lead in pipes until 1975 but current science shows that lead exposure can cause serious health problemslike increased blood pressure or behavioural effects in children, according to Health Canada.

The city of Saskatoon tracks the type of material that was used at the time when service connections were installed, Corbett said, and keeps a database.

"Every year, based on that record, we send letters out to the homeowners talking about the lead service line program," he said.

A three-decade plan to replace those pipes has been dramatically shortened to 10 years after an input of funding from all three levels of government. The program received $15.8 million from the federal government and$7.9 million from the province. The city provided $19.6 million.

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In December, Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark said residentscouldexpect nine per cent increases to water rates in each of the next three years, in part to help deal with infrastructure repairs such as lead pipe replacement.

Corbett said the funding from the three levels of governmentmeans the city willquadrupleits annual program for replacing deteriorating connections, replacing 900 connections in 2017.

"We are picking cast iron water mains that serve more than five lead service connections per block. It will be on a block-by-block basis," he said, adding the city will do road reconstruction and other work at the same time.

For people still waiting on lead pipe removal, Corbett said there are different ways to take precautions, particularly for pregnant women and children.

Lead can dissolve into drinking water if it sits stagnant so flushing toilets, doing laundry and running showers will keep drinking water fresh.

The water is safe for showering, cleaning or watering plants, he said. But boiling water does not remove lead.

For more information, visit the city's website.