This school year has come with an unseen problem: water quality. The water used in Marriotts Ridge High School’s athletic room tested positive for lead in October. Athletes usually get their water from the athletic room for practice, so they were forced to go to the cafeteria for water. Many sports teams pushed back their practice times to accommodate the change.
Although this issue only lasted for a short period, it felt never-ending. The inconvenience caused student-athletes and coaches to have to get to the field earlier so they could fill up their water in the cafeteria; otherwise, they would be starting practices late.
“The water situation made our team walk a little bit farther to get water from the cafeteria, which I don’t think is the biggest deal in the world, just a little extra effort. The players had to suck it up,” said social studies teacher, Mr. Khouri.
This situation caused people to worry about how this could occur in an area, where water can be tested for lead and fixed immediately.
“It is concerning that a situation like this could occur. I would have thought the school would take precautions to prevent something like that,” added sophomore Aaron Hammond.
The lead in the water has students wondering if this will be a recurring event. Additionally, the water fountains have a distasteful flavor, which has many students skeptical of the water’s quality.
“I still don’t drink the water because I don’t trust it, and it tastes bad. If it happened once, it could happen again,” said senior Chloe Lozzi.
This dilemma has also caused people to have to bring their water due to the bad test and lack of trust in the purity of the water.
“I still don’t trust the water even now that it has been tested. It makes it inconvenient for me to bring water from home,” commented science teacher, Mr. Lowe.
The lead in the water caused a conflict in the track athletes’ practices. The inconvenience caused many problems to arise. Some of the athletes had difficulties adapting to the new standards; of bringing water from home. This problem resulted in the students being dehydrated because they refused to drink from the school water fountains.
“I found it hard to stay hydrated during my track season because there’s only so much water I can bring to school. I wanted to drink more water during the day to prepare for practice, but I’m uncomfortable drinking from the fountains. There were a couple of days where I forgot to bring water, so I was left scrounging around for leftovers from my friends,” added sophomore Boden Pistorio.
The water in Howard County School systems are tested every year to ensure that the water is healthy. The school system has strict water quality standards to ensure student health.
“We have environmental engineers that go to every Howard County Public School, to test the purity of the water in every spigot. There is a certain amount of lead in the water that the state deems acceptable, but the school system requires even less,” stated principal, Dr. DiPaula.
Although the water inconvenience only lasted for a short period, it is an event that affected all fall athletes and is still a big topic of conversation. Students and teachers alike have lost some trust in the water system, regardless of whether or not they drink from the fountains now. Now that they are aware that this situation has occurred, they will be able to ensure it won’t happen again.