THUNDER BAY -- Although the province is mandating the city to address the lead content in its drinking water, a petition with over 200 signatures is circulating to oppose adding sodium hydroxide to the local water supply.
Over 60 people attended a meeting on Thursday in Current River, the neighbourhood where Thunder Bay intends to pilot the chemical additive in 600 homes.
The city chose Current River for the project's December launch because it's the smallest pressure zone with many older homes, which were built with lead pipes up until the 1950s. If samples prove sodium hydroxide reduces lead concentrations, the chemical will flow city-wide in late 2016.
Rhonda Hanah started a petition to oppose the policy after she said an anonymous city employee reached out to her.
"The petition started because of misleading letters as well as being contacted by someone in the deparment that hoped there would be citizen action because the specilaists in the department felt their hands were being tied by the ministry of Ontario but in fact, Thunder Bay has excellent quality water," Hanah said.
"This test isn't necessary here, I'm told. We don't need the expense and it isn't necessary but the only way we could stop it was citizen action becuase their hands are tied by the ministry."
Planning and research analyst in the city's environment division Erin Marcella-Fui didn't contest the allegation that Ontario's forcing all cities to implement Corosion Control Plans that will decrease lead content in their water supplies. She said, however, the plans are necessary for health reasons and insisted the science is sound.
In testing her department has been conducting since 2007, it estimates the water in 10 per cent of Thunder Bay's 8,000 homes built with lead pipes have higher lead content than the legal limit. Because water drawn at the Bare Point Treatment Plant has a higher stable pH level than intake points in other Ontario cities, local water only needs slight chemical additives to lower the amount of lead leaching into the water supply.
"There is a lead issue in 8,000 of the 30,000 services (homes) in Thunder Bay," she said.
"We have to address it and come up with a solution to minimize the corrosion. Our hands are a little bit tied in that way. We chose sodium hydroxide because it's the best choice for our source water."
