Kevin Duke says replacing the lead pipes in his home doesn’t seem feasible.
The Thunder Bay, Ont., senior wasn’t aware of the lead pipes until the City of Thunder Bay began distributing NSF/ANSI-53-approved water filter pitcher kits in 2020. A couple of years ago, he said, the city replaced the main water line on his side of the street, but from there to his water meter, it’s all lead piping.
“I highly doubt that I would be able to afford to get all that replaced,” Duke said.
Before the mid-1950s, lead service pipes were commonly used to connect people’s homes to city watermains. But as research emerged about the dangers of the toxic metal to people’s health, the National Plumbing Code of Canada banned lead piping in 1975 and lead solder in 1986.
Still, many older homes across the country have lead pipes. Earlier this month, the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) published a report calling for Ontario municipalities to stop only partially replacing lead service lines.
“There can be really high levels of lead in the months and years following the partial replacement because you’ve disrupted the lead line, and there can be big particles coming into your house,” said Julie Mutis, community outreach worker for CELA and lead author of the report.
The association is recommending that cities pass bylaws to make it mandatory for property owners to replace the lead pipes on their side of the property line, while also providing income-adjusted financial support to help cover the costs.
“When they find the lead pipe, they would not just be taking out the city side and then leaving the other lead [pipe] in place to continue harming people, but they would be removing everything at once,” Mutis said.
“This would mean that people who don’t really know they have lead pipes are going to be supported in removing them.”
Hamilton is the only municipality in Ontario with a bylaw aimed at preventing partial lead service- line replacements. Mutis said several communities in Quebec and Saskatchewan already have similar bylaws in place; Saskatoon, for example, is on track to have all lead service lines replaced by 2029.
There can be really high levels of lead in the months and years following the partial replacement because you’ve disrupted the lead line, and there can be big particles coming into your house.– Julie Mutis, community outreach worker with the Canadian Environmental Law Association
In Thunder Bay, the city offers an interest-free loan program as well as a $1,500 grant for eligible low-income earners and seniors. However, Duke questions whether that’s enough.
“I think they should go by the home income and how much it’s going to cost to get it done at that home,” he said. “I realize that would probably be a little on the tricky side, but they should be able to do something.”
$350M class-action lawsuit underway
Corrosion control programs are one way to address lead, but they aren’t always effective. In 2018, the City of Thunder Bay introduced a small amount of sodium hydroxide in the water supply to help reduce the amount of lead seeping in from old pipes.
After the chemical was added, people began to complain about pinhole leaks in their copper pipes and hundreds of homeowners began to experience flooding. The city removed the sodium hydroxide in early 2020, which is when it started to provide NSF/ANSI-53-approved water pitchers and filters to properties with known lead service lines.
Later that year, a $350-million lawsuit was launched against the city by Thunder Bay resident Patsy Stadnyk on behalf of all those affected by the leaks. It’s seeking damages to cover all residents, businesses and organizations whose pipes were damaged, or at risk of damage or failure, caused by the city’s introduction of sodium hydroxide in the water supply.
The city is defending itself in the case. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
David O’Connor, a partner with Toronto-based law firm Roy O’Connor LLP, is representing the plaintiff. He said the case has not yet reached the examination for discovery phase, but he hopes to see a pretrial scheduled by late next year and the matter resolved by the end of 2026.
A smaller $350,000 lawsuit against the city related to the leaks has since been stayed, as the plaintiff opted to become part of the class action instead.
‘Lead is even more dangerous than we thought’
There are about 5,586 publicly owned and 7,818 privately owned lead service lines connected to the Thunder Bay’s water distribution system, according to the city’s 2024 annual drinking water-quality report.
Even low amounts of lead exposure have been linked to life-altering health effects, especially among children, according to the CELA report. These include:
- Reduced IQ.
- Learning difficulties.
- Behavioural problems.
- Impacts on fine motor skill development.
“As years go on, we’re learning that lead is even more dangerous than we thought, and it’s important that we’re not falling behind on the best practices that are being used in the rest of the country,” said Mutis.
A spokesperson for the City of Thunder Bay said they were “unable to accommodate interviews currently” about lead. Instead, they provided an emailed statement to CBC News and highlighted how the city has committed $25 million over a 20-year period to replace lead service lines.
The city continues to replace publicly owned lead lines as other infrastructure work is completed, such as watermain replacements and during renewal capital projects, it says. People can also apply for the priority lead replacement program to have the city replace the publicly owned lines on their streets.
Finding an affordable solution
Coun. Andrew Foulds brought forward the resolution for Thunder Bay council to consider the loan and grant program to support privately owned lead service-line replacements. He questions whether making these replacements mandatory is in the community’s best interest.
“The question becomes do you want a punitive [strategy] or do you want to incentivize? And what I’m not really interested in is forcing homeowners who are already on the fringes into undue financial hardship,” Foulds said.
“How do we make our financial incentives more accessible and distributed equitably to citizens?”
At the end of 2024, the city had approved 118 interest-free loan applications for residents replacing privately owned lead pipes.
“The challenge is, to absolutely solve this problem would cost an extraordinary amount of money that no municipality has to do in one shot,” Foulds said. “How do we operationalize something with that sense of urgency?”
Paul Berger, an associate professor at Lakehead University and lead organizer for Citizens United for a Sustainable Planet, said it makes sense to replace lead service lines in their entirety rather than do partial replacements.
“I think it’s a good recommendation to have a bylaw compelling homeowners to do their half of the lead line. It will increase the value of the property,” said Berger.
“But I think it’s very important that it’s done with equity in mind and that the city makes some accommodations to make sure that it’s affordable for people.”
Another important aspect is ensuring people are well educated, he said, both about lead and the city’s plans to address it.
“People often don’t pay attention to things that they don’t think impact them until suddenly, when it does impact them, then they’re scrambling for information.”
