City to require replacement of lead pipes
The mayor is worried about the persistence of lead pipes in the water system, and plans to have drinking water tested and, if necessary, lead pipes replaced by order. Le Devoir has been making a thing of it.
Update: The city has created a map tool which tells you if the building where you live likely has lead pipes. You have to click on the location tab to see a result. (Every address I’ve tried tells me there may be lead, so filter your water.)
dwgs 10:07 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
They’re doing this in many areas of NDG right now.
Mr.Chinaski 10:41 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
dwgs this is different. In the previous way, you would wait until the city changes the main pipes on your street, then you could coordinate with them so that the works are all at the same time. This would lower the cost as the excavation team would already be there. Unfortunately only about 20% of the people did that.
Now the new plan is that the city will do it for you, then you will have to repay the city for the next 15 years. They will force the change but only when they change the main pipe on your street.
Tim 11:24 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
I strongly support Plante’s initiative to force home owners to fix their pipes. 15 years for payback seems very reasonable and matches the Home Buyers Plan for RRSPs.
denpanosekai 11:26 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
I dodged a bullet — my house is 1950 and not a lick of lead anywhere (pipes at least). But for anyone worried you could have your water tested for about 75$ and a roundtrip to industrial Longueuil (EnvironeX). Don’t bother with off-the-shelf garbage.
dwgs 11:48 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
Well on many blocks in NDG they are digging a 4′ x 4′ hole in every single front yard and a corresponding one in the street in front of the house and replacing the water entries. I haven’t heard anyone complaining about having to pay.
Mr.Chinaski 12:51 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
4′ is the public part of the lot (*servitude), here the citizens will be forced by the city to change the pipe up to the house and pay the city.
mare 15:35 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
We tested our water and it was within the limits, even for pregnant women and small kids.
Nevertheless in my block in RPP, 5 owners thought this was still too much, or wanted to sell their building, and had their water pipe replaced, spread out over three years. A crew digs a big hole, puts in a new pipe, done. The repavement of the road however is done so shitty and fast (they didn’t took the time to shake the gravel bed and then wait until it settled, but asphalted the road the same day) that after a few weeks there’s a big indentation in the road, big potholes appear in the winter and when the big city trucks barrel through the street (30 km zone, no trucks allowed, but hey, the city’s yard is at the end of the next block) there’s a lot of noise and our building shakes.
Oh, and in a few of those cases it took a few months before the trench in the sidewalk was redone, and all this time the sidewalk was inaccessible to wheelchairs.
If all lead pipes are done at the same time as the city’s main and the repavement of the road and sidewalk it makes sense. They did that a few blocks over and it took a whole summer (and probably many millions of $). Can’t imagine that be done in the whole city.
Tim 16:56 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
The interactive map from the city is available at https://santemontreal.qc.ca/en/public/advice-and-prevention/lead-in-drinking-water/
A link about what to do if you are like me and just found out that there are lead pipes leading into your residence: https://santemontreal.qc.ca/en/public/advice-and-prevention/lead-in-drinking-water/
Nowhere is it mentioned that a way of avoiding lead is to buy bottled water. I guess that doesn’t play well with their environmental agenda.
Tim 18:43 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
Apologies, the interactive map is: https://services.montreal.ca/presence-plomb/?utm_source=site-ville&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=vdm-eau-plomb-dans-leau-2019-traf&fbclid=IwAR1P1Ilg2vJre4BU0n8wkX7-xVQAtR7uv6u-5CDGeE_0_A0_6LTlRoPXq70
Kate 18:46 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
I don’t think that has to be seen as an agenda, Tim, with the negative connotations of that word. Nobody wants to use bottled water indefinitely for drinking and cooking – some other solution has to be found.
Chris 20:33 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
Tim, if you switch to plastic bottles, you’re trading lead for microplastics. (That might be a good trade in fact, but not ideal.)
John B 21:00 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
That “What to do” page of the city’s isn’t that helpful. The sentence “The water filtration devices must be NSF-certified to reduce lead, in accordance with NSF/ANSI Standard No. 53.” is somewhat misleading. NSF/Ansi No. 53 is kind of a group of standards, so if you get something that’s NSF/ANSI 53 certified, that might be NSF/ANSI 53 for particulate matter, or chlorine, or nickel, or something else. It actually has to say NSF/ANSI 53 for Lead.
It would be much more helpful if there were a couple of brands & models listed so I could just get one of those. Or even better if the city arranged for an at-cost purchase, similar to how Hydro-Quebec organizes deals on low-flow shower heads.
Chris 22:17 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
Years ago I spent hours trying to find best water filter for my fridge. The popular Brita does not filter lead. I settled on ZeroWater.
Tim 22:21 on 2019-10-23 Permalink
The jury is out on microplastics with young children. I would take that trade right now over what has been proven with lead. There is also the strength in numbers with microplastics: everyone on the planet is going to have that problem.
Long term, I will have to find some sort of solution (maybe reverse osmosis?), but it will be plastic bottles until that gets sorted.
The most concerning thing is the testing methodology which was used. Running water for 5 minutes before taking a sample just makes it seem like those responsible were trying to hide this problem.
walkerp 09:03 on 2019-10-24 Permalink
I don’t believe that the city map has actual empirical data. Our entry pipes were replaced in the early 90s and the map and the map says “it is likely that we have lead pipes”. More damning, they redid the entire road and all the entry pipes on Jeanne-Mance between Mont-Royal and Villeneuve this year and the map says the same thing. I think it just runs a check on the age of the building and gives the answers accordingly and has not actually incorporated the history of actual work done.
Fortunately, one of our neighbours has been here since the 80s and has the entire history of the building so we are pretty confident ours have been replaced. You can also go into your basement and check the pipe coming into the building. That will get you half the info, as there is another pipe that connects from outside your building to the city that has to be checked as well only by digging up.
Your best bet is to test your water yourself. As denpanosekai said “you could have your water tested for about 75$ and a roundtrip to industrial Longueuil (EnvironeX).” Thanks for that!
walkerp 09:25 on 2019-10-24 Permalink
I called the city and the rep did not have a clear answer on how they get the data for the map, but he said their guiding principle was to err on the side of caution. I would recommend checking for yourself, finding out the history and doing the water test before assuming anything based on this map.
Raymond Lutz 10:09 on 2019-10-24 Permalink
“The most concerning thing is the testing methodology which was used. Running water for 5 minutes before taking a sample just makes it seem like those responsible were trying to hide this problem.” Indeed…
see for instance http://flushingflint.com
Kevin 10:32 on 2019-10-24 Permalink
These limits are lower than the limit that was acceptable two months ago.
My NDG water was tested in the summer and given the ok — but according to these new standards every pipe leading to my house is going to be ripped out and replaced.
MarcG 10:54 on 2019-10-24 Permalink
I installed an under-counter water filter a few years ago, mostly for the purpose of removing chlorine to make better tasting homebrew, but it also filters metals, bacteria, etc. It cost around $250 from Doulton Canada.