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By Susan McNeil

Lead water pipes

City council to discuss lead service registry

Nov 19, 2025 | 12:33 PM

A Prince Albert city councillor would like the administration to explore the idea of having a lead water service registry.

Tony Head, who represents Ward 3, asked to have staff delve more into the idea during Monday’s council meeting.

“This has been a heated and well-debated topic in these chambers about what do we do with our lead services within our city,” he said.

The city said its database shows just under 400 properties in Prince Albert that still have lead water service connections; most of the homes were built before 1950. Head pointed out that the city’s drinking water has been shown to be completely safe, but there are some plumbing and service connection types that may introduce lead into the water supply, and he said people buying or selling homes have mentioned it as a concern.

“Owners and people who are acquiring new homes should have this information available to them,” Head stated.

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It may not be that easy, however.

Public Works Director Jeff Da Silva said the city has a record of the properties with lead service connections, but only on the publicly owned side.

“I should just say, there are no records for what was done on private property. For a lot of those types of services, you can infer that if a house was built within a certain decade, there’s a good chance that it was lead, but it also doesn’t tell us if there were any changes to the private side lead service,” he said.

That means, the number of lead services remaining could actually be less than the 400 shown on record.

Each year, the city replaces about 10 to 20 lead service connections with poly or copper lines, but they are only installed for the city-owned portion from the water main to the private property line. Homeowners are responsible for replacing the lead service connection to their home.

“When residents do come, if they ask about their property, we can show them what our records indicate, but what our records indicate also isn’t necessarily 100 per cent,” Da Silva pointed out.

Public Works will complete a review of what would go into the creation of a registry, including the cost and what the limitations are based on records. Following the review, a report will be presented to the city’s executive committee detailing the benefits and challenges, along with a recommendation.

The city conducts annual water testing in locations with known lead connections. Health Canada has set a limit for lead in drinking water as 0.010 mg/L. The lead level in Prince Albert’s drinking water when it enters the distribution system is less than 0.00005 mg/L or 199 times lower than the Heath Canada limit.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com