Yukon government continues work on removing lead from drinking water at 24 schools, programs

Twenty-four schools and associated buildings in the Yukon have at least one drinking water source that exceeds the national guideline for maximum lead concentration, according to recent testing results.

Analysis of those results, the Yukon government said in a press release Tuesday, "do not suggest that students and staff at Yukon schools are being exposed to lead levels that would be considered a health risk." However, work to remove or fix non-compliant water fixtures is underway and will continue through the spring.

The Yukon government tested the drinking water at the schools, as well as programs such as the Gadzoosdaa Student Residence and Teen Parent Centre in Whitehorse, between October and December 2024. 

The results indicated that fixtures at eight Yukon schools and programs were all compliant with the maximum acceptable concentration laid out in Health Canada's Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. However, 10 had one fixture that needed "remediation, mitigation, or replacement," eight had two to three non-compliant fixtures and six schools had five or more non-compliant fixtures. 

The government, in Tuesday's press release, said it was "committed to addressing schools' immediate needs by continuing this remediation work in the coming weeks and months." It also said it was continuing to develop a long-term school drinking water monitoring program.

The Yukon government has been tackling the issue of lead in school drinking water since last year, when two students at the Del Van Gorder School in Faro, while doing a science fair project, found that the drinking water there contained more lead than allowed under national drinking water guidelines. 

The guidelines set the maximum acceptable concentration for lead at 0.005 mg/L, a standard last updated in 2019. 

The Yukon previously tested school drinking water between 2018 and 2020, but followed a different national standard at the time that allowed a lead concentration of up to 0.02 mg/L.  

The Faro students' discovery prompted the government to review its old test results.

It found that a number of school water fixtures did not meet the lead standard set out in Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality, though its unclear when or why the Yukon government switched from the standard it previously followed to the drinking water guidelines. The finding, however, triggered the fresh round of testing last year.