A joint investigation by Global News, The Toronto Star, Le Devoir and Concordia’s Institute for Investigative Journalism. As Dan Spector explains, while some Canadian cities have implemented a common fix, Montreal has taken a different approach.

Lead levels in the tap water of some parts of Montreal are as high as those in Flint, Michigan, at the peak of their water crisis in 2015, says a senior city official.

The official confirmed the numbers from thousands of water test results obtained during a joint investigation by Global News, The Toronto Star, Le Devoir and Concordia’s Institute for Investigative Journalism.

But municipal and provincial government officials both say that Montreal’s water is safe and that the situation in the metropolis is different than the crisis that struck the American city.

The map below shows results from the City of Montreal’s lead testing program from 2004 to 2018.

The results shown are from a “flush” test, where pipes are flushed for five minutes before a sample is collected.

Enter the first three characters of your postal code below to see the results where you live. Or tap on the map below to explore.

SOURCE: City of Montreal. Data obtained via an ATIP request courtesy of Michael Wrobel and the Institute for Investigative Journalism (IIJ). Data processing greatly aided by Antoine Béland and Le Devoir. Interactive graphic by Max Hartshorn

The city is also offering free filters to households with high lead levels in their tap water, as well as introducing a new website that will allow people to search to see if their address might have a lead problem. Montreal has tens of thousands of lead service lines underground that link its water mains to the homes of nearly 300,000 people, according to city estimates. As a result, these residents in houses or apartment buildings with eight dwellings or less are at risk of getting traces of the neurotoxin mixed into the water, every time they open their taps.

montreal water quality