In its ongoing efforts to be innovative and trend setting, the
City of Thunder Bay has inaugurated an exciting new lottery – Lotto Nightmare Pipe
Dream. The price of admission is simply being a property
owner in the City of Thunder Bay and there is an annual top up fee known as a property
tax. To win? You have to have a copper pipe leak either in
your home plumbing or – if you are a really big winner – in the city water feed
line to your property. The prize? Well,
the prizes range from 0$ - not winning - to up to minus $30,000 dollars
or more depending on how big a winner you are.
The odds of claiming a prize are unknown but you can win from anywhere in
the city though apparently the odds go up if you are lucky enough to live in the
Northwood or Red River Wards.
Needless to say, the epidemic of leaky pipes in Thunder Bay
in the wake of the introduction of sodium hydroxide to mitigate lead in the
water has become the lottery from hell. Despite what might be considered to be
the comforting biblical allusion of having a Mayor and 12 Councillors gathered in
perpetual Monday evening supper time council meetings presiding over our welfare, they
continue to remain silent on the issue with no prospect of the good news of salvation
in sight. Yet, based on the Facebook membership
numbers in the Thunder Bay Leaky Pipe Club as well as numerous local media
stories, nearly 1500 households have been affected. The demonstration
this week by affected residents is evidence of the growing problem. And, the numbers will likely grow given that
it is quite probable that all pipes in the city have probably had decades of
life removed from them by the introduction of sodium hydroxide. So, even homes in newer subdivisions can probably
expect to see cases in years to come.
The Mayor and Council are refusing to make any public
comment. They are not even saying if
they are studying the issue or collecting data or have hired a water/environmental
consulting firm to advise them on the issue.
Simply saying absolutely nothing – which is what the Mayor did at his virtual
town hall this week - because of potential legal issues is outrageous given
that these are our elected representatives.
There needs to be accountability here – not just by the City of Thunder
Bay- but also by the province which has mandated municipalities to take action
on lead corrosion but oddly enough has not provided for a uniform approach to
the problem. However, the province has been
reported as stating other cities use sodium hydroxide with no pinhole leak
issues suggesting they are washing their hands of the matter. However, at least one of the cities
mentioned by the province in the news report– Ottawa
– does not seem to use sodium hydroxide but phosphates
as its lead corrosion approach.
So, It turns out other
cities have also had a lead problem – Toronto and Hamilton for example –
but both dealt with it by introducing phosphates into the water supply. In Toronto’s case phosphate was introduced
in 2014 and was even endorsed
by Toronto Public Health – to my knowledge there was no endorsement by public
health officials in Thunder Bay for adding sodium hydroxide. If there was, I
would like to see it. Hamilton approved
the use of orthophosphate in 2015. Phospates
apparently have a long history of use in the UK and along with Toronto and
Hamilton, Sudbury and Winnipeg also use it also for lead corrosion control
purposes.
Where does this leave us?
In Thunder Bay, there are always more questions than answers and the
silence of the mayor and council does not help us out at all. Why did
Thunder Bay opt for sodium hydroxide rather than phosphates in treating its
water for lead corrosion? Was it a cost issue – that is, we opted for a cheaper
chemical? Was it a water composition
issue based on the chemical nature of our existing water supply given that it
comes from Lake Superior that necessitated using sodium hydroxide rather than
phosphates? Is adding phosphate a
solution to our water issues given that there is at least one example of a
community in North America – Folsum, California of Folsum Prison Blues fame
- adding it to their water to stop pinhole leaks. We need answers and
sooner rather than later. Thunder Bay’s new lottery is not all it is cracked up
to be.
