An excess of lead was found in 81 sinks and water fountains on the University of New Brunswick (UNB) campus, according to the CBC.
Barbara Nicholson, associate vice-president for capital planning and property development at UNB, told the Daily Gleaner that measures have been taken to either shut down affected units or start replacing them with special filtered units.
“As part of the testing, UNB submitted ‘worst-case scenario’ water samples to an external laboratory, meaning instead of running the taps for five minutes as recommended by [the] Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality, we chose to take samples without running the taps,” Nicholson said on the university’s website. “We did this because we recognize that students, faculty and staff may drink the water first thing in the morning without letting the water run.”
The university has sampled over 420 sinks and fountains and still isn’t finished, according to the CBC.
“We continue to test areas that people have identified as drinking water sources that have not been tested. We continue to replace drinking fountains as quickly as we can in light of long delivery times,” the university told CBC News.
Health Canada guidelines have established a maximum acceptable concentration for lead in drinking water at 10 ppb (parts per billion) in a free-flowing sample of water, according to the City of Ottawa’s website.
Nicholson said the water is still safe for dish washing and bathing.
The university is currently replacing older water fountains on campus with new fountains that have filtration systems to prevent future outbreak of lead in drinking water, according to UNB’s website.
The university has ordered 20 new fountains so far, which cost about $5,000 each, according to the Canadian University Press (CUP).
Nicholson told the CUP that the process will take about six months to complete.
