Nova Scotia’s education minister says drinking water at all Nova Scotia schools is being tested for lead under new guidelines and that the process will be completed in spring.
Zach Churchill said testing began this past March when Health Canada reduced the maximum acceptable concentration from 0.01 mg/L, set in 1992, to 0.005 mg/L.
So far 92 of 370 schools have been tested, according to the province’s data. The department was not able to say whether any of the tests came back above the allowable limit.
Previous to the new standard the province was required only to test for contamination at the school’s water source. The new regulations require samples to come from the tap.
The department is also promising to put all test findings into an online database available to the public. In the cases of higher than allowable test readings parents and students would be notified immediately and there would be funding to fix any problems, said Churchill. The system will be up and running by the start of the next school year.
Premier Stephen McNeil said he was concerned about recent reports of unusually high levels of lead in many sources of Nova Scotia drinking water. But he offered little in the way of remedying the problem, deferring to recommendations from Environment Minister Gordon Wilson.
Wilson rejected the NDP’s proposal to provide grants to cover the cost of water testing for homeowners in the province. He said even in cases where homes have wells the responsibility falls on the homeowner.
Wilson offered few details on how the province would tackle the problem of tainted water in Nova Scotia or how it intends to raise awareness among Nova Scotians
“As we transition through these new changes we’re seeing from Health Canada, we certainly are going to look at seeing if it affects any of the protocols that we have with registered drinking water supplies,” said Wilson.
"(We'll) obviously ensure again, Nova Scotians are aware that the limits have changed and it’s paramount for them to do testing.”
NDP Leader Gary Burrill accused the province of being complacent in the face of a growing public health problem, insisting that school drinking water databases should be well established by now.
“This betrays a certain level of complacency on the government’s part," said Burrill. "The government needs to move with every sense of urgency and dispatch."
