So it seems we as a collective have decided that the school water is not safe to drink. Whenever I run outside to fill my water bottle from the fountain, I am met with a chorus of “Ew the school water is disgusting” or, “I think it has lead in it.”
Well, as a school water drinker and a know-it-all who likes to be right, I decided to do some intense experimentation and research on this topic, as one does when they’re procrastinating on studying for finals.
My first phase was this: recounting personal experience.
I will concede on one point: the fountains themselves can be nasty.
Clumps of gum shoved into the drains, hard water buildup on the metal of the fountains — our school’s water supply isn’t easy on the eyes.
However, my holy grail has always been the water bottle filler. On days where I inevitably forget to fill up my bottle in the normal pell-mell that is getting ready for school, the usually gum-free spigot dispenses water that doesn’t taste awful.
The carbon-filter tap water I have at home has no distinctly different flavor profile than what I get at school. Of course they differ slightly, but I can’t detect any harsh metallic taste or moldy funk.
It’s just, fine.
But personal experiences aren’t everything, and so a nagging worry pushed me to strive for some more empirical data.
So, what would an average high-schooler do when faced with an inane question like this? Well, buy a 20-part water-testing kit and find a dissolved solids meter from my dad’s toolbox, of course. Oh, and don’t forget the hour spent trying to decipher a government website on water testing results in our municipality.
Anyway, what I found was this, and it echoes an earlier sentiment: The water is just fine.
With a high dissolved solids content (472 parts per million) given by my dad’s meter, I was originally a bit worried. But using the water testing kit, I found that those dissolved solids were likely just high levels of calcium and magnesium: the same stuff that builds up on shower heads and is what causes what is considered “hard water.” My testing kit showed normal results for almost everything: chloride, fluorine, bromine, carbonate, iron, copper, nitrite, and yes, lead. The water’s pH was about 7.1 — nearly perfect, as the range of pH for safe drinking water is from 6.5 to 8.5.
I was almost a bit disappointed.
The only thing that was slightly elevated was a measurement called “total hardness.” Again, this just confirmed my suspicions that the high dissolved solids were just minerals. According to a study published in ScienceDirect, minerals like magnesium and calcium can change the water’s flavor profile. High levels of magnesium cause a slightly bitter or metallic taste in drinking water. It’s likely that that’s what some students are tasting when they complain of lead in the water.
I find it incredibly interesting, this myth of lead. I hear it so frequently talked about, when in reality, its likelihood of being true is incredibly low. Remember that government website I talked about? Yeah, it’s www.sandiego.gov/public-utilities/water-quality.gov and I’d recommend you take a look at it if it didn’t take me an hour to decipher it and navigate through its pages.
Buried in the site is a map of water mains, and the materials that make them up: there was no lead piping that I could find anywhere in San Diego.
What’s also funny is that tap water is incredibly well-regulated as compared to the bottled water I often see students sipping on.
According to NRDC tap water quality, especially in large cities like ours, is checked more frequently for pollution and contaminates than bottled water. And when I looked, the tap water in our water district in 2023 had normal levels of basically everything: yes, again, including lead content.
The only lead around here is in teen’s vapes. I really don’t think our water fountains should be the main concern.
And so, I have finally satisfied my know-it-all nature; I will continue to sip on our clean, cool water — straight from the school fountain.
