By Cheryl Jahn

City Water Is Safe

Dec 1, 2017 | 8:33 AM

The City is taking a proactive approach to a report set out in the Council agenda for Monday night.
The City is re-assuring residents the drinking water in civic facilities is safe. A report in Monday night’s Council agenda sets out the results of testing that was done on 24 civic facilities. It found 13 of those facilities, including City Hall, had higher than standard levels of lead. Further testing found that the presence of lead was NOT related to the City’s aquifer, but were related to the soldering in some of the older pipes.
Specifically, the results showed faucets that were used less frequently may have elevated concentrations of lead.
“Although lead piping was banned in Canada in the 1970’s and lead in solder in 1986, some plumbing fittings, both in new and older buildings, may still contain lead that can be absorbed into immobile or stationary water. In plumbing that is used relatively infrequently, this may cause a buildup of lead in the immobile water,” says City General Manager of Public Works and Engineering Dave Dyer. “This is why it is recommended that people run the water for drinking purposes for about 30 seconds as suggested in the Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines for lead.”
Work is underway to address the situation, such as replacing the fixtures in certain location as well as putting up signage to remind users to run the water for a period of time befiore drinking it.
The report to Council for Monday night’s meeting sets out the 13 facilities in question:

3990 18th Avenue (new City Yard admin building), Agriplex, City Hall, CN Centre, Rolling Mix Arena, Elksentre, Kin 1/2 Lounge, Kin 2, Parks Trailer (18th Avenue Yard), Solid Waste Building (18th Avenue Yard), Studio 2880, Studio 2820 and the Prince George Playhouse.