Failing grade
How a small student project uncovered a campus-wide problem
When Michelle Gray asked her University of New Brunswick (UNB) Environmental and Natural Resources students to complete a practical project around water, she had no idea one project would result in a serious campus-wide evaluation and an overhaul of the school's drinking water system.
One team in her second-year course, Water Sustainability; Practices and Technology proposed a project around promoting the use of reusable water bottles. Together, they decided to test the university's drinking fountains to prove that tap water is just as good as bottled. Using New Brunwick's Department of Environment (DOE) protocol, the students gathered water quality samples ftom 14 fountains to test for six common metals: lead. iron, copper, zinc. manganese. and cadmium. The DOE's water lab analyzed the samples. and the Canadian Rivers Institute funded the study.
While the team expected that samples would return with acceptable results that would help prove their case, that wasn't the case. In fact, test results revealed that water from several fountains on campus contained high levels of lead.
"The levels were past the acceptable health advisory level." says Cynthia Hawthorne a graduate student in environmental management who was part of the student team. Samples showed a concentration of just over 0.0015 milligrams per litre, the level advised by Health Canada.
How could this happen? Hawthorne speculated that aging pipes might be one culprit. Gray adds that some of the eyewashing stations in the labs hadn't been flushed for year and the some of the issues would be resolved if people were advised to run water for a few minutes before using it,
Whether the issue was decaying infrastructure or lack of maintenance, the real problem, she says is that while there are protocols to test incoming water, there aren't protocols for testing it at the point of use. "Fredericton uses aquifer water. which is tested every day. But no body thinks to test it after it hits the pipes.
Gray and her students provided UNB with a copy of the final report in December 2010. While administration was a bit slow to act, the university eventually announced an expanded study to assess the situation campus-wise. Significant media coverage had prompted other schools to complete similar evaluations. St. Thomas University, located nearby. has since replaced several drinking water fountains and now include lead filters. UNB's Saint John campus followed suit and one public school district in Fredericton did the same, decommissioning fountains at three elementary schools and one high school.
"This highlights the utility of real and applied projects in academic courses that can actually make a significant difference.," says Gray. who recommends that all large institutions test their systems.
Staff
From: WaterCanada, January/February 2012
