Lauren Rayman

    The drinking fountains at the high school have a unique quality that many students use on a day to day basis- the water bottle fillers.

    Upon arrival back from summer break, many students quickly realized that the water quality of these fillers had gone down. Many of the stations in the high school have red lights on.

    On the drinking fountains with the water bottle fillers on them, there are three lights on them- a green one, a yellow one, and a red one.

    When the green light is on, it means that the water is being filtered properly and is clean. The water is still okay to drink when the yellow light is on, but it just means that the filter will need to be replaced soon.

    The red light means that the filter is not working as it should be and needs to be replaced. The water that is being used to fill up water bottles is not as good as it should be.

    Some students have noticed that the water from the stations with the red light on does not taste as good and is sometimes cloudy. This is a result of the filters not being changed.

    Even if the water is safe to drink, the appearance of the water itself draws students away from it. Because of it’s cloudy look, some students are less inclined to drink it.

    Not only does the water not taste as good because of the filters, it is unsanitary.

    Drinking water that is not filtered properly often leads to people getting sick. There is a relatively low chance of this happening at the high school since the water going into the fountains is clean, but it is not as clean as it could and should be.

    With the red lights on on most of the drinking fountains throughout the school, students do not want to use those fountains. The filters not being changed has been very inconvenient for almost all students.

    Despite the fact that there are many drinking fountains with the water bottle fillers all around the school, students have to sometimes go all the way across the building to find a drinking fountain they feel is better to fill their bottles up with.

    Having so many drinking fountains with the water bottle fillers has been very beneficial to both the school and the environment.

    They are very easy to use, so students can quickly fill up their bottles and move on with their day. Students do not have to bring multiple plastic bottles to school, they can just refill one.

    Many students do not even use plastic water bottles anymore. Many choose to bring reusable bottles from brands like S’well and Yeti. Since so many students at the high school do this, there are less plastic bottles being thrown away within our high school.

    The installation of the water bottle fillers has been overall beneficial for the school. If the filters do not get changed soon, students may stop using them all together.