Fact Sheet: Drinking Water in Schools
Remember that some areas of your school may be off-limits without permission from your teacher or principal, and some projects should be done with at least one partner. Check with your teacher before beginning any of the activities or projects listed here.
Why It Matters
Drinking water can contain bacteria, viruses, metals or chemicals.
You need water throughout the day. But in some schools, the drinking water isn't as clean as it should be.
Sometimes water passing through old plumbing systems picks up harmful metals, like lead. Or water might come from a reservoir or lake that's polluted. Pesticides and fertilizers that run off lawns, paint that's dumped down drains, and chemicals from factories can all pollute drinking water sources.
Before it comes through the faucet, drinking water is often treated to remove harmful substances. But many water systems don't do a good enough job at this, so the water they deliver to their customers may not be as clean as it should be. Many schools face a special problem with their drinking water because it doesn't come from the community's main water system, but from a separate one. There are fewer rules for keeping this kind of water safe and it's not tested as often, so the people who drink it don't always know as much about it as they should.
Sometimes you can see that drinking water isn't clean, and sometimes it might taste funny. But you can't always tell if drinking water contains substances that shouldn't be in it.
What happens if you drink contaminated drinking water? If it contains bacteria or viruses, you might begin vomiting or have an attack of diarrhea. If you frequently drink water that contains traces of pesticides, industrial products or lead, you can suffer effects ranging from stomachaches to headaches or even cancer.
What Kids Can Do
- Let the water from fountains run before taking a drink: Water that comes out of a drinking fountain might contain lead, because the fountain's parts or the pipes they're connected to can contain lead and other metals. The longer the water sits in the fountain or pipes, the more likely it will pick up traces of lead and other metals. So if you're the first one in line at the drinking faucet, let the water run for a few seconds before you drink. That way you'll get water that hasn't been sitting around in the pipes. (It's a good idea to do this at home, too, if a faucet hasn't been used for a while. At home, try to keep a container around and use the water you don't drink for some other purpose, like watering plants.)
- Learn the facts about your school's water: Water suppliers are required to write reports on the quality of their drinking water each year. These documents, called consumer confidence (or right-to-know) reports, contain lots of useful information, including where the water comes from and what's in it. The Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water can help you interpret these reports. To find out who supplies your school's water, ask your custodian or look in the phone book's blue government pages under "water." (You might have to call the supplier you find to make sure it provides water to your school.) Once you've found the supplier, ask for its annual consumer confidence report. Some suppliers post their reports online. You can find out if your school's supplier is one of them through the Environmental Protection Agency's Local Drinking Water Information Page. If your school has its own water supply instead of using your city's or town's supply, ask your custodian for any test results.
- Protect your watershed: The watershed is the entire area that drains into a body of water. Protecting watersheds keeps water clean and safe -- not just for the people who drink it, but also for the animals that depend on it. There are many ways you can help protect your own watershed. Some of them are relatively simple -- for instance, choosing safe paints or cleaning products and disposing of them properly. Others require more effort, such as collecting litter or restoring wetlands (they're natural pollution filters).
Project Ideas
- Test your school's drinking water for lead: Find out if your school's drinking water contains lead, and if so, how much. Even if your school already tests for lead, you can still find out a lot from your own test. (It's a great way to learn more math and science.) You can also test your water at home. You can contact a nearby state-certified lab to analyze the sample you take and explain the results. Call the Environmental Protection Agency's drinking water hotline at (800) 426-4701 for a list of labs.
- Go to the source: Find out who supplies your school's drinking water, then get its annual water quality report. Make a map that shows the route your water travels from its source to your school, and explain what kinds of contamination threats your water supply faces.
- Join (or form) a watershed protection group: Across the country, people are working together to protect and restore their watersheds. The Environmental Protection Agency can help you learn about existing groups or give you advice on starting your own group.