Aurora Mayor flushes concerns about local drinking water quality

Town of Aurora has no lead pipes in its water-distribution system

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 14, 2019
Teresa Latchford

Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas said his message is simple: the town’s drinking water is safe.

More than 120 journalists from nine universities and 10 media organizations, including the Toronto Star and the Institute for Investigative Journalism, conducted a year-long investigation collecting test results that measure exposure to lead in 11 Canadian cities and found hundreds of thousands of Canadians are consuming tap water laced with high levels of lead due to aging infrastructure.

Out of 12,000 tests conducted since 2014, 33 per cent exceeded the national safety guideline of five parts per billion.

Reporters also spread out over 32 cities and towns from coast to coast and tested the water of willing residents living in older homes. Using the accepted standards and submitting samples to accredited labs, it was found that 39 per cent of the samples exceeded the current federal guideline.

While media reports have sparked chatter on local social media groups questioning the safety of local drinking water, Aurora isn’t one of the communities highlighted in the investigation reports.

“The town of Aurora has no lead pipes in the distribution system,” Mrakas said. “All service connections in Aurora are copper, with the odd galvanized service line on the private side that may still be in service.”

In 2008, Aurora was mandated by the province to test for lead from 80 private residences, eight non-residential, and 16 samples from the town’s distribution system twice annually. Since that time, over 800 lead samples have been taken with no adverse results. Because of this, Aurora has been granted regulatory relief from residential and non-residential sampling, and only 16 distribution samples annually are now required.

“We were granted regulatory relief, which means we do not have to conduct the same number of tests as other municipalities, because our testing has had no adverse results,” Mrakas explained. “We do everything we do to keep our drinking water safe.”

This includes a water-quality annual report, staff training, inspections and auditing, and a back-flow-prevention program to ensure any potential back flow from private properties is prevented.

“We take this very seriously,” he added.

However, this is specific to municipal pipes, and homeowners whose home construction predates 1975 -- the year the use of lead pipes in construction were banned -- should have their own water tested.

“If residents have concerns, the town will help them test at the cost of the resident, and if there is an issue, it can be corrected,” Mrakas said.

Schools were also pegged for having high levels of lead in their water due to aging infrastructure in the investigation, but the York Region District School Board said it is vigilant with monitoring and taking action to remediate issues when they arise.

The public board introduced a new water-testing process a couple years ago, where water is regularly tested at each school on an annual basis, said school board spokesperson Christina Choo-Hum.

Each school has to meet the requirements laid out by Ontario’s environment and climate change ministry.

If there is an exceedance, the school board works with public health to mitigate the issue by flushing pipes, removing a particular fixture and providing an alternative water source until the test levels are clear, Choo-Hum said.

For tips on what you can do to find out if you have lead in your tap water, click here and scroll to the section on York Region.