Edmonton’s courthouse was once plagued by a leaky ceiling.
Now, the aging building is experiencing another kind of water woe.
Water testing in the Edmonton Law Courts turned up elevated lead levels in about four per cent of samples, Alberta Infrastructure spokesperson Brendan Procé said in an email last week. The testing accompanied the replacement of the building’s 19 water fountains with new models that include filters and water bottle fill stations.
Signs were recently posted on all fountains indicating whether or not the water is safe to drink.
“We take the concerns over water quality in our provincial (buildings) seriously,” Procé said.
The ministry ordered water testing after questions from the Edmonton Law Courts building health and safety committee. Of 100 samples taken, four came back with elevated lead levels above the Health Canada maximum. All but one sample fell below the acceptable level after running the water for 30 seconds.
“To ensure health and safety of building occupants and visitors, all impacted fountains have been turned off and signage has been placed in all impacted areas,” said Procé. “All of the impacted fountains are older fountains and were scheduled to be replaced.”
Sixteen of the fountains are marked as safe to drink, while three are deemed “out of order.”
“Two are currently being replaced and the third has not been tested yet, hence being taken out of operation,” Procé said. “To assist building occupants in accessing drinking water, Infrastructure supplied and installed bottled water dispensers to the areas that have not been tested yet.”
The news comes as a report to determine the future of the Edmonton courthouse is “being finalized,” Procé said.
The provincial government commissioned a $3 million business case last year to determine whether to renovate, expand or rebuild the law courts building. It was initially due in October 2023 but was repeatedly delayed.
The business case was launched after a power outage plagued the building’s south tower for weeks. The January 2023 electrical outage forced an evacuation and caused some Court of King’s Bench cases to be moved to the adjacent provincial court tower. Some Court of Appeal hearings were rescheduled entirely.
“We do see the need for a new courthouse in Edmonton,” said then-justice minister Tyler Shandro at the time.
The law courts also dealt for years with a leaky glass atrium connecting the two towers, which the provincial government finally replaced in 2019.
Calls to replace the 1970s-era building go back to at least 2010, when the associate chief justice called for a new courthouse to address space shortages.
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