The City of Steinbach is currently in the process of their annual water testing for lead in the water. 

Mike Heppner, Waterworks Manager for the City of Steinbach, says they need people to volunteer their houses for water sampling. 

“The guidelines have changed with the lead sampling requirements, not to be just in the distribution system, but actually to take the sampling right into the residential homes and/or some businesses and so on.” 

He says it was a program that was implemented by the Manitoba government in 2020.  

“So as the City of Steinbach, our program was initially supposed to start in 2022, but because of some delays through the COVID period, ours isn't starting now until 2023.” 

He says the process of water sampling is relatively easy. 

“We would drop a 1L bottle off at the particular location, and at any point in time during the day, they just fill the bottle and we would pick it up and have it sent in for the lead testing.” 

Some areas are higher priority than others, Heppner says that’s because they are primarily focusing on the older area of town. 

“Not because we have expectations of issues being caused by water service lines coming to the house, our distribution system was started post the lead pipe drive usage,” he says. “But more so now focusing on some of the structures that may have been used in the homes in the older construction periods. So (for example) looking at the lead solder that was used back in the 50s, 60s, 70s and so on.” 

He says they've put a lot of guidelines in place like changing plumbing code requirements and allowances over the years, and eliminating any use of lead in any of the structures that are attached to a drinking water line. 

Heppner says the whole initiation of the program, and the change from just the distribution to the homes itself, was because they're looking at the water quality being a possible primary initiator of the lead leaching process.  

“If they're leaning toward an acid or a base characteristic within water quality, that causes the lead to leach more,” he says. “So even in some homes that are of newer construction, if there have been some items that are showing that there's lead leaching, they're looking for that as well.” 

He says the sampling is scheduled yearly for the first two years, and they are required to take 40 samples each year. 

If the results come back with no indications of issues within any of the locations after two years, then they'll reassess and they may drop in the number of samples that are required. 

Heppner says they are hoping and expecting to see a drop. 

"Based on our history of lead testing throughout the distribution, we've been testing for over 20 years already, there haven't been any distribution samples that have been coming back with any red flags in them." 

He says they are looking for as many volunteers as possible. 

“We'll do an assessment of priorities so that we get a representation from basically the entire distribution system as a whole, but focusing on some of those higher priority areas.  

He says if they end up with more volunteers than needed for this year and they're in the eligible areas for testing, they’ll be making contact and asking them if they can consider them for future years for the sampling process.   

If you are interested and would like more information, you can look at the City of Steinbach’s website.  

They also have a form on the website to fill out with the information that is needed to do the assessment. 

To apply to be part of the program, please email water@steinbach.ca or call 204-346-6211.