October 19, 2008: THE TORONTO SUN

By: BRYN WEESE
      

Residents of Toronto's older homes are expected to know to flush their water twice a day if they suspect they have lead in their lines. 

But with the water rate increasing 9% in 2009, the fourth such increase in as many years, flushing your system to avoid drinking lead until the city replaces the remaining 60,000 of 65,000 lead service connections over the next nine years could prove costly. 

But Glenn De Baeremaeker, who chairs the public works and infrastructure committee, doesn't see it that way. 

He says the cost of flushing a water system every day or twice a day is still very cheap, and it's a good insurance policy. 

"The cost of water in this city is so cheap, even with the 9% increase, flushing your toilet costs you about a nickel," he said, noting that is almost enough to purge your system of stagnant water. 

Other recommended measures include running the tap for several minutes after every six-hour period that the water hasn't been running. For most families, that would be twice a day. 

"I know it sounds wasteful, and none of us like to be wasteful, but for the sake of five pennies, it's a good insurance program to protect your family," De Baeremaeker said. 

"It is counter-intuitive, because we all want to conserve water and we don't want to be wasteful, but that only applies to the less than 10% of the population that have those old pipes. Ninety percent of us shouldn't be doing that." 

Currently, there are still 72,000 homes in Toronto that pay a flat rate, compared to 465,000 who pay on a consumption basis. 

But Coun. Mike Del Grande said if any of the user-pay customers are being told to flush their system while the city replaces lead service connections, it's not fair to make them pay more. 

"The city can't have it both ways," he said. "What we should be doing is calculating what a five-minute flush costs, and we should be providing a credit for those people who are in those older homes where there is a problem."