Durham Region offers free drinking water testing for lead in residences and businesses receiving municipal water supply.
To be eligible, facilities must meet the following criteria:
Built prior to 1990
Are connected to a Regional water supply
Are a residential, industrial, commercial or institutional property (that is not a School or Child Care Center)
Do not have a Water Filtration System and/or Water Softener installed, or have the ability to by-pass one that is installed
To request a free lead test for your water, please complete and submit the form by clicking the button below. A Works Department Water Resource Monitoring and Protection staff member will contact you to confirm eligibility of your request and review next steps.
Residents are responsible for collecting their own water samples. A Lead Testing sampling package will be mailed to the address where the sample is being requested. The sample collection takes approximately 35 to 40 minutes. The sample procedure involves a five-minute cold water flush followed by a 30-minute wait period during which time no water can be used in the building. Once the samples are collected, they must be mailed to or dropped off at our Regional lab for testing and results are typically received within 10 business days through email. More detailed instructions are provided in the package along with the sampling kit.
Personal information provided to the Regional Municipality of Durham is only used for the purposes of processing your transaction and administering your payment. The information collected is subject to and handled in accordance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA). The Regional Municipality of Durham does not collect your debit or credit card details; this information is managed by our payment processor and is subject to their own privacy policies and procedures, as well as any applicable privacy laws, independent of the Regional Municipality of Durham. They may impose an additional transaction fee based on your transaction associated with The Regional Municipality of Durham. For more information on how the Region manages your personal information, please review the Region of Durham’s Terms of Use and Privacy Statement for more information.
