OCDSB schools exceeded federal guidelines for lead in drinking water, report says

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Schools in Ottawa’s largest school board exceeded federal safety guidelines for lead in drinking water in about one-third of about 5,300 tests between 2019 and 2023.

That was the highest ratio of any school board in Ontario, according to a report from the Investigative Journalism Bureau and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto.

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The report singled out two examples in OCDSB schools that exceeded Health Canada’s maximum acceptable lead levels in drinking water of five parts per billion (ppb).

At Cambridge Street Public School, 41of 44 tests returned with levels over the federal guideline, with four tests ranging between 105 ppb and 136 ppb, the report said.

First Avenue Public School conducted 61 tests between 2019 and 2023, with more than 80 per cent showing lead levels over five ppb, including two that reached 1,500 ppb and 1,730 ppb.

“There is no safe level of lead, according to the World Health Organization. Children are particularly vulnerable,” the report said. “Recent research shows the health impacts from the insidious neurotoxin — from lifelong developmental disabilities in children to increased blood pressure and coronary heart disease in adults — are far more dramatic than previously known.”

In a statement, the OCDSB said it took safe drinking water seriously and any water points discovered through past test results to exceed provincial limits of lead had since been fixed.

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“At the same time, we are concerned that recent reports on this serious issue have been presented in a misleading way,” the OCDSB said.

“By compiling all test results together and not identifying the number of water points that have been taken out of service and fixed, the report gives the impression that issues are not resolved or more water points are affected. On some cases, one fixture that has been closed and repeatedly tested as staff fix the problem.”

The school board also defended the test results at Cambridge Street and First Avenue schools, saying the high results came when schools were closed due to COVID-19 regulations and were due to resampling of problem fixtures before the issues were rectified with provincially approved measures like flushing or adding lead filters.

More than half of the test results referenced for Cambridge were resamples from water fixtures, the school board said.

“The test results specifically highlighted as areas of concern were new water filling stations that were installed through the COVID-period school shutdowns in 2020, when there was little water activity in the school,” the board said. “These stations were not used by school occupants. Staff investigated the issues and the fixtures were opened for use after we were able to ensure safe test results.”

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More than half of the test results referenced at First Avenue were from resamples of water fixtures taken during the school-closure period.

“The two test results cited were both from the same water point. Staff investigated the issue and the fixture was opened for use after we were able to ensure safe test results,” the OCDSB said.

Since 2017, all designated drinking water locations in OCDSB elementary and secondary schools have been tested based on the provincial standard of 10 ppb, the board said.

The action taken is based on the results of the water sample. “For example, where the exceedance is in the standing water sample only, and the sample after flushing water is acceptable, then a daily flushing regimen is adopted. If both the standing water and the sample after flushing exceed the provincial standard, the water fixture is taken out of service to respond to the problem, in accordance with provincial regulations,” the board said.

Flushing is a method that requires water to be run through pipes for at least five minutes to remove any lead that may remain in standing water. Any fixture installed for water consumption purposes must be tested for lead prior to use, according to the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2002 and 2017 amendments.

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“The OCDSB has also been proactively replacing drinking fountains that exceed the Health Canada recommendation of five ppb and are within the Ontario requirements of 10 ppb,” the board said.

In total, about 13 per cent of approximately 100,000 tests for lead in Ontario school drinking water between 2019 and 2023 exceeded Health Canada’s safety guideline of five ppb, the report said.

Most Ottawa schools listed as exceeding safety guidelines were built around the mid-point of the 20th century. According to test results posted on the OCDSB’s website, fixtures with lead levels testing above provincial levels had been found in staff rooms, kindergarten rooms and gym kitchens.

“We know the impact of lead on health and development. It’s incredible this is happening in schools of all places,” said Ottawa West-Nepean MPP Chandra Pasma, the NDP education critic.

There’s a backlog of repairs for schools. According Fix Our Schools, an advocacy group, there was a $16.8-billion backlog in school maintenance across Ontario in 2022, and that figure continues to grow.

“It’s the age of schools that really matter,” Pasma said. “Schools boards are trying to handle situations like floods, mould and leaking roofs.”

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At the OCDSB, water fixtures are not returned to service until lead levels in drinking water are below provincial requirements, the board said. If fixtures are taken out of service, they are made inaccessible through signage and turned off and are only put back into use once the school board has been able to obtain satisfactory test results.

Solving the problems can include replacing the fixtures, moving further back through plumbing lines or adding a lead filter. Through this process, multiple water tests may be taken to determine whether or not a single problem has been fixed, the OCDSB said.

According to the raw data of Ontario test results, this may give the impression that there are multiple separate exceedances, “when in fact this may result from several tests taken to fix one problem.”

There are both provincial and federal guidelines for safe drinking water: 5 ppb for federal and 10 ppb for provincial. Some provinces, including Ontario, have failed to adopt the more stringent federal safety guideline, which is designed to better reflect the health risks to children, the report said.

“I’m assuming the science is not different for the federal government and the provincial government,” Pasma said. “We should be doing everything we can to protect children. That means following the science in the federal guidelines.”

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