The water in Mariam Imaq’s kitchen runs clear now, but it didn’t always. 

“Imagine like acrylic paint, a black acrylic paint,” she said, describing what the water used to look like. “Acrylic paint is oil based and it had that kind of texture and it’s as if you dip the paint into a toothbrush and then flicked it everywhere.”

She’s a resident in a building which also houses Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik, Iqaluit’s only Inuktitut daycare.  

The building is owned by YWCA Agvik Nunavut, an organization that provides shelter for women and children, and is managed by Atiilu Real Estate. 

Imaq said she immediately noticed the black flakes in the water in the shower and sink when she moved into the building last year. She said she and her roommates complained about the black flakes to management.  

“I was concerned, but I just kept on going about my everyday consuming the water and then just cleaning the sludge away after every time we used it,” she said. 

In an email to CBC, the property manager said the issue began last year when a rubber bladder in a water tank failed, shedding black rubber debris into the heating system.

However, CBC has obtained an email from another resident showing they complained of “black charcoal” in the water when they moved in two years ago. The resident saids they have a young child and that whenever they are home, they feel sick.  

Imaq said she’s spoken to former residents of the building who have also expressed concerns over the black flakes. 

“People who worked downstairs with the children have been complaining about this for years and it’s only in the past few months that action has been taken,” she said. 

Tumikuluit Saipaaqivik didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Lead in hot water remains

The Government of Nunavut says there’s been lead in the water since March and the building has been under a no consumption order. 

On May 1, the ban was lifted on the building’s cold water, however lead can still be detected in the hot water. 

Health Canada guidelines put the maximum safe amount on lead in drinking water is 0.005 milligrams per litre. 

According to an Atiilu email to residents obtained by CBC News, the hot water is about 20 per cent above guidelines. 

Atiilu said the lead in the hot water is caused by the installation of new water tanks and that lead wasn’t in the water prior. 

Mylène Ratelle, an adjunct professor of public health at the University of Montreal, said it’s “good news” that the cold water no longer has high levels of lead in it. 

“Lead is a natural element. It’s everywhere,” she said. “However, when we are exposed through drinking tap water, it is something else. Usually, it’s one of the components of the plumbing system can be the pipes, can be the shoulders, can be the tank that will be contaminated with lead which will increase the concentration in our tap water.”

Effects can be reversible, but hard on kids

Still, Imaq worries for the health impacts on herself and the children in the daycare. 

“I’m thinking of these children who don’t have developed brains and what their impact would be since they’re much more vulnerable,” Imaq said. “I’ve experienced nausea, headaches, memory loss, fatigue and some problems with my skin, irritation on my skin, things like that.”  

Ratelle said ingesting lead can have lasting impacts on health, especially for children. 

“We as humans are mainly vulnerable when we are in development,” she said. “When we are in the womb, a fetus, little kids, young children, this is really the population at risk of developing lasting impact on health, which is mainly cognitive and intellectual impacts.”

Ratelle said the health effects are usually reversible once people stop drinking lead-contaminated water. She recommends running the tap water before drinking it and getting a lead filter. 

Atiilu said it is providing bottled water to tenants and that lead water filters are coming. 

Though the cold water is safe to drink, Imaq continues to drink bottled water. 

She said the contamination underscores the way many Indigenous people are still experiencing unsafe drinking water in their own homes, because access to clean water is not equal across the country. 

“We are dismissed a lot of the time by landlords, even when it impacts our health directly,” Imaq said. “It’s important to understand that these things are still happening and that Indigenous people still need water.”