Hard To Swallow: Saskatchewan & Asbestos Cement Water Pipes
Public money wasted. Science ignored. Lying liars who lie. Sound familiar?
What follows this prelude is a brilliant guest submission written by Regina’s Julian (Jay) Branch.
To be able to say Jay is a friend is something I’m proud of today. He was director of communications for Lorne Calvert while I was producing the John Gormley Live Show. Unsurprisingly, at that time our relationship was combative.
Eventually we each moved on from our roles, but reconnected in recent years as more like-minded (and on my part, more mature) residents, unhappy with the state of both the provincial government and Saskatchewan media.
On the issue of asbestos cement water pipes, Branch has been a dogged and determined advocate. You may know him from his persistent campaign on social media to raise awareness of the frightening issue of asbestos in our water-carrying infrastructure.
Branch has been successful in his campaign, even securing an entire episode on CTV’s W5 detailing the extensive network of asbestos pipes in Saskatchewan’s two major cities. For some reason, however, there is still significant resistance from other news outlets and politicians against his efforts.
I can sympathize. Last year former Saskatchewan Liberal leader Jeff Walters held a news event about the extent to which asbestos permeates the Saskatchewan Housing Authority’s inventory of single, double and multi-unit residences. I wrote about it at that time as well:
It is very likely this is the reason so many SHA units are empty.
Only one media outlet in Saskatoon bothered to cover Walters’ newser.
Despite my own efforts as well as others to share the information with their caucus, the Saskatchewan NDP bizarrely, stubbornly refuses to publicly acknowledge the presence of asbestos in SHA units. The only reason I can think of is they haven’t included the exorbitant cost of the abatement process, required by law if any any restoration work was to begin, in their election promise.
Same applies to asbestos in water pipes. Despite Branch’s very clear history with their own office, the Saskatchewan NDP have largely tried to make him go away. He gets into that in what he wrote.
What I know for sure is that asbestos is not a sexy issue. It doesn’t stoke outrage. Its presence can’t be blamed on any one political party or politician. Dealing with it wherever it is, is expensive and tedious - but extremely necessary. In fact, something like taking care of asbestos in public assets and infrastructure is exactly what we elect politicians to handle for us.
Anyway, I wanted to share the information on asbestos in Saskatchewan water pipes, but figured it made way more sense to ask Branch to write it, who knows the facts inside and out, instead of taking the deep dive myself.
Jay didn’t charge me to write this, so I’m not going to charge any of you to read it. This piece is free for everyone and you are welcome to forward it to other readers.
So without further ado, enjoy this important read and remember to go vote as soon as you can.
May 22, 2003, began like many others for this Saskatchewan Canadian Press-Broadcast News correspondent.
Toronto had called. There was a story concerning the Canadian Wheat Board and the minister responsible, Ralph Goodale, would be attending a news conference at the University of Regina. Could I just run over and get a quote?
It’s unwise to say no to head office, so I said I would go by.
I dashed over to the university and grabbed a news release when I walked into the room. The headline read ‘$30 million for Communities of Tomorrow partnership and NRC centre.’ Looking around the room, I realized this was a big deal. Not only was long-time Liberal cabinet minister Goodale in attendance, but Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert, Mayor Pat Fiacco and University of Regina President Gordon Barnhardt where all there as well.
The announcement involved something called the ‘National Research Council Centre (NRC) for Sustainable Infrastructure Research’.
The skillfully-crafted news release said all partners were in for at least $5-million dollars. It went on to say that the initial focus of the new centre would be “municipal water management best practices,” and that it would help Regina “meet its existing and future infrastructure challenges.”
Fiacco referred to Regina as a “living laboratory.”
I grabbed Goodale for a Wheat Board quote, pocketed the release and headed back to the office. Toronto got what it wanted. I filed a quick story on the new $30-million research centre and completely forgot about it for the next nine years.
I had left journalism in 2005 and had gone to work in communications for a variety of politicians in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. By 2012 I was working in communications at the University of Regina.
One sunny spring day while researching another water related issue at the U of R, I discovered much to my surprise, that approximately half of the water distribution pipes in Regina are made of a material called asbestos cement (AC).
This information was contained in the 2011 City of Regina Water and Sewer Utility Budget.
I remember immediately thinking to myself, ‘What the hell is asbestos doing anywhere near water?’
Searching on the internet led me to a series of ten studies on asbestos cement water pipes conducted by the NRC - the same Regina-based centre for which I had attended the announcement in 2003.
The studies all say the pipes are experiencing an increase in breaks and repeatedly refer to asbestos leaching from old pipes as a “health concern.”
One study in particular says,
“Severely deteriorated AC pipes also released asbestos fiber into the drinking water and could pose a hazard of malignant tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and other organs in consumers.”
I’m not a medical expert, but thought that if half of Regina’s water mains had the ability to cause cancer, media and politicians would surely be interested.
I met with Ralph Goodale, who was now back on the federal Opposition side. Showed him the research. He gasped in the appropriate places and promised to look into the matter further. I also shared my research with several media outlets.
On May 30, 2012, Global News broadcast a story about how Regina was slowly replacing “asbestos-laden water pipes.” The story said “While inhaling asbestos is a major health concern, microbiologist Roy Cullimore, who worked on that report, says there is no evidence that ingesting it is harmful.”
I pointed out to Global News that Dr. Cullimore had actually just co-authored two NRC studies in 2010 and 2011. One said “health concern”. The other said “cancer”. Global did not interview Dr. Cullimore again.
On June 7, 2012, about a week after Global News ran that story, the City of Regina sent out a media advisory inviting local journalists to a hastily called scrum in the city hall courtyard.
‘City of Regina and Ministry of Environment remind residents that city water is safe despite asbestos cement pipes’ screamed the news release.
The next day, CBC News devoted a whopping four sentences to the issue. One of those reads “The city noted that the water is not tested for asbestos levels on a regular basis because asbestos is not considered a health concern if it is present in drinking water.” The next sentence adds “The city also said it will spend $2 million on relining the pipes, as a measure to ensure asbestos does not get into the drinking water supply.”
It apparently didn’t occur to reporters to ask why the city was spending millions of dollars to keep something out of the water that it had just stated was not hazardous to drink.
However, my favourite story came from the short-lived Metro newspaper. Under the headline ‘Officials insist Regina water safe to drink’, the June 8th Metro story read:
“There has been some talk about a study coming out of the United States that has looked at a linkage between asbestos in drinking water and some benign forms of cancer of the stomach,” said Sam Ferris, executive director of the municipal branch at the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment. “We don’t know how rigorous that study is and we really need the time to look at that and any other emerging information.”
Let me cut to the chase. I knew at that moment that there was much more to this issue than I had discovered so far.
The United States has conducted volumes of studies on asbestos in water. For years, Ferris and the Ministry of Environment had been the Saskatchewan representative on the federal/provincial/territorial Committee on Drinking Water. He would have been keenly aware of the U.S. studies. They were conducted in the 1970s and 80s – decades before Mr. Ferris made his comments in 2012. Plenty of time to check the rigor of the studies.
Since 1992, the United States of America has regulated asbestos in water. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fact sheets from that year show that the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) was set at seven million fibres per litre (7 MFL). The fact sheet goes on to explain it was established at 7 MFL “to protect against cancer.”
1995 EPA fact sheets describe the long-term health effects of swallowing asbestos as “lung disease; cancer.”
Rigorous enough for you?
I reached out to Mr. Ferris, who went on to serve as head of regulatory with the Water Security Agency (WSA). I never heard back. I have asked the WSA to produce the American study to which Mr. Ferris was referring. The WSA told me it was unable to locate that study.
I had also taken my concerns to the Saskatchewan NDP (disclaimer: I worked for the NDP in government and in Opposition from 2005-2010).
On April 15, 2013 Regina MLA Trent Wotherspoon raised the issue in the Intergovernmental Affairs and Justice Committee with none other than Jim Reiter, the man who in 2016 would become Minister of Health. Mr. Reiter feigned ignorance of asbestos cement water pipes and asked for time to consult with officials in his department. Mr. Wotherspoon thanked him for this, adding that he “would welcome any review by his ministry in a rather urgent way.”
In 2014 I accepted a job overseas. In 2019 I followed up with Mr. Wotherspoon to see whether he had ever received a response to his urgent request from Mr. Reiter, who was now the Minister of Health. He had not, meaning six years had passed since Mr. Wotherspoon had asked a question which he said himself deserved an “urgent” response.
With that I became re-engaged with the Opposition NDP.
On November 14, 2019, NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat fired off a letter to Health Minister Reiter. She referred to the long-term effects of exposure to asbestos in drinking water as a “serious health concern,” which required “proactive action.”
In late 2019, the NDP sent a series of five written questions regarding asbestos cement water pipes to the Sask Party government. To say the responses were lacking in substance would be a vast understatement.
The NDP did not follow up.
I would spend the next several months corresponding with the Saskatchewan NDP caucus. By now, they had been in possession of the ten NRC studies on asbestos cement water pipes, which had been conducted at the U of R, for years. The studies were not only conducted in Regina, they focused on Regina, and repeatedly referred to asbestos fibres in the water as a “health concern.”
On June 15, 2020 Mowat raised the issue in the Human Services Committee with Health Minister Jim Reiter. Mowat was a like a dog with a bone. She wanted to know if Reiter was aware of any health studies that had been conducted on asbestos cement. After consulting with officials and deputies for several minutes, Reiter tried sloughing her off the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency. She wasn’t having it.
Mowat asked again.
“So you haven’t been provided with any studies that link ingesting asbestos to any health concerns?
Reiter:
“In the interest of time, I think we’ve had some correspondence on this before and tied the Water Security Agency into it. So, we’re going to follow up on that, and if I could get back to you on it rather than take up your time right now?”
Mowat agreed, then went on to point out that the asbestos and cancer risk page on the American Cancer Society website highlights swallowing asbestos and “water that flows through asbestos cement pipes.”
What about those very specific scientific studies conducted by the National Research Council Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure Research, for which the provincial government paid $5-million in 2003, which was literally peppered with the words “health concerns?”
Another clever follow up would have been for Ms. Mowat to ask the minister of health to define “health concerns”. Or perhaps ask Minister Reiter how swallowing asbestos, from old water pipes, can cause cancer in Americans but not Canadians?
None of that happened.
As a matter of fact, the next time the issue was raised in committee was on April 29, 2021 by the NDP critic responsible for WSA, Erika Ritchie.
The clever Sask Party strategy of shifting this from a health issue to a water issue had worked.
In that Economy Committee meeting, of all places, Ritchie raised the issue of health risks associated with asbestos cement water pipes.
WSA Minister Fred Bradshaw responded by saying the provincial government wasn’t concerned about asbestos in water “because there’s no scientific issue.” No scientific issue except the ten scientific studies, which the provincial government had paid $5-million for, which repeatedly mention those pesky health concerns.
Ms. Ritchie failed to raise this issue in subsequent questions.
Again, in 2003 the NDP government spent $5-million to study asbestos cement water pipes, to learn they can cause cancer. The Sask Party shut the research centre down. Why? And why weren’t citizens warned of the potential danger? The NDP would have been aware that swallowing asbestos from old pipes can cause “health concerns” even prior to the 2007 provincial election.
Making no headway with Mowat and Ritchie, I focussed my attention on Aleana Young. After all, it was those NRC studies which show the problem with asbestos cement pipe breakage is the worst in her (then) constituency of Regina University.
In spring 2022 I met with Young to once more go through the research.
On June 22, 2022, Young sent a spicy letter to then federal Infrastructure Minister Dominic LeBlanc demanding “a plan of action” for asbestos in water pipes. She advised the federal minister that the studies conducted at the NRC centre “flagged significant potential risk.”
A few months later I received a stunning note from Young’s constituency assistant. It turns out Mr. LeBlanc’s office had responded with what is known in political parlance as a ‘PFO’ (please f*** off) letter. Young’s office was now passing that message on to me. The basic gist was that Leblanc’s office intended to do something about the asbestos cement pipes at some non-specific point in the future.
Young then indicated her office isn’t in position to do anything further.
Pardon my ignorance, but when a federal minister provides a crap response to a provincial politician, isn’t that supposed to be where the fight begins, not ends?
Remember that May 2003 news conference anchored by Ralph Goodale announcing a $30-million research centre? Ralph Goodale, who was the head cheerleader at that news conference, surely would have been aware of the asbestos issue.
Yet when I bumped into Goodale this summer, cutting the grass at his south Regina property while on a break from his grueling schedule as Canada’s High Commissioner to Britain, he claimed to have no knowledge of that day, nor the work that the centre had done.
I asked Mr. Goodale whether he had ever followed up on the material I provided back in 2012. He shook his head sheepishly. Ironically, his home is serviced by asbestos cement water pipes. I left Ralph to continue bagging his grass clippings.
A perfect illustration of just how greasy this file is can be found in an informative article in the Summer 2005 edition of the University of Regina publication UResearch. It boasted about the vital work being performed by a new NRC research facility.
Keep in mind that like the province, the U of R was also a $5-million partner in the centre - it’s all your money.
That 2005 article references 535 kilometres of buried “pressurized water pipes” were being studied, which were experiencing “ever increasing levels of failure,” and the “problem can only grow.”
The remarkably specific number – 535 km – caught my eye. The 1995 NRC publication says Regina has 535 kilometres of “asbestos cement water pipes”.
Why didn’t the University of Regina refer to them by their real name? Likely the same reason that May 2003 news release, or reams of other publications from back in the day, don’t include the words “asbestos cement”.
That NRC had discovered a very big, very expensive problem. Did I mention that there are more than 1,000 kilometres of asbestos cement water pipes in municipalities across the province?
I stumbled across this issue in 2012. Shortly after that, the NRC closed its doors, and politicians have been tripping over themselves since then to distance themselves from it. Taxpayers ended up spending at least $34-million on that research centre. I humbly submit that we didn’t receive good value for money.
This has turned out to be the best story I never had as a journalist, and the situation will only continue to worsen, as the pipes age, deteriorate and break.
“We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.”
Yeah, right.
Me again.
Real leaders and strong governments understand that their role is not to give their voters whatever they want - it’s to give residents whatever they need.
Even when it’s not glamorous.
Without a shadow of a doubt, between the SHA and Saskatchewan’s municipal underground water pipes, there is multi-billion dollar asbestos issue in our province that will have to be addressed eventually - preferably, not after catastrophic collapse.
Talk soon,
If you’d like to show additional support beyond your subscription, I gratefully accept private donations through e-transfer to tammyrobert@live.ca.
These contributions, no matter how small, directly impact the quality and quantity of content I can create, ensuring that your interests and needs are met.
I do not and will not ever accept corporate sponsorship.
1
Share