SIP Content: Drink The Water

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Description
Props and Materials
Concepts
Learning Objectives
Set-Up
How To Demonstrate
Questions To Ask
Sample Dialogue
Background Information
Credits

For a paper copy of this guide, go here.

Description

This activity will explore how much of a substance is required to change the taste and/or appearance of drinking water, as well as how drinking water gets to and from our homes. In the activity, guests will look at and taste different water, determining when they can taste added substances and whether they would drink the water. Using a graph, they can record their own results and compare with other guests. By placing different structures related to drinking water on a map, they will understand how water that we drink is treated and disposed of.

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Props and Materials

Permanent______________________________________

metalwater map 6 water magnets
plastic container of sugar solution plastic container of salt solution 7 glass jars containing colored water 5-10 plastic pipettes white plastic bucket
easel stand with white board laminated graph

Consumables______________________________________

paper cups
4 or more bottles of water
stir sticks
washi tape
paper towels
wet erase pen

Maintenance____________________________________

Treat all props with respect.
Recycle plastic bottles and throw away caps at the end of the activity. Compost paper cups and stir sticks. Lay pipettes out on a paper towel to dry inside the cart. Rinse out the white bucket and place it upside down inside the cart to dry.
The jars of colored water are glass. Be careful not to drop and please do not give them to visitors you think may accidentally drop them.
Keeping track of the cups, stir sticks and pipettes can be difficult with many visitors. Expect spills, but please do your best to prevent anything going into the salt and sugar solutions.
Please try to keep the metal water map and magnets dry.
Markers are fun. Too much fun. Please keep an eye on the wet erase pens to make sure no one scribbles on themselves or anything that can be damaged by markers.

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Concepts

Different elements and chemicals can affect the safety of drinking water but might not necessarily affect the taste or appearance of it.
Drinking water goes from a watershed to a treatment facility to reservoirs, where it is then pumped to many locations for consumption. After water is used it it treated and then can either be recycled or disposed of.

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Learning Objectives

By tasting water with added salt or sugar and looking at water with different amounts of food coloring, guests will consider how much they can tell about their drinking water through simple physical assessment and discuss what that may mean in their daily lives.
Guests will place objects on a map in order to participate in a discussion about where their drinking water comes from and how it is disposed of, then use this map in order to determine who is responsible for making sure their drinking water is safe and how they can contribute to water safety.

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Set-Up

Set up the easel with the graph. If any graph has dots all the way to the top, feel free to erase the whole board with a water spray bottle and paper towel to begin again.
Lay out paper towels on the cart surface. There will be spills and drips for this activity, and guests will be less concerned about them if you begin with a toweled surface.
Make sure you have at least 10 paper cups with washi tape along the bottom. If you need to make more, be aware the tape won't go on perfectly smoothly because it is straight and your cup is round. Joy had trouble figuring this out so I thought you should know.
Make sure you have enough of the salt and sugar solutions.
Set out the sugar and salt solutions, a stack of paper cups, some stir sticks, 1-2 pipettes, and the white bucket. Take out a jar of the colored water and have the other jars ready to go.
Keep the metal water map, magnets, and wet erase pen in a dry spot in the cart.

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How To Demonstrate

Attract visitors to your activity by asking them questions like, "Do you drink water?" or, "Want to try something with me?" (You could use questions like, "Are you a drinker?", but gauge your audience before doing so.)
Show them the jar of colored water and ask if they would drink it. Follow up with a question about why they would or wouldn't drink it. If they wouldn't drink it, show them a lighter colored jar and ask if they would drink that; if they would drink it show them darker colored jars. Keep going until you find the first jar they wouldn't drink while asking questions about what they think might be in the water.
Give them the wet erase pen and show them the graph, explaining that the Y-axis of the graph is the number of people and the X-axis is the color of the water. Lead a discussion about what water color can and can't tell us about the safety of the water by asking questions about what might be in drinking water and whether these substances can hurt us.
Ask them if they would like to try another experiment that involves drinking some water. Let them know the water is all bottled water and the only thing we will add is sugar or salt, but if they don't want to do the experiment we can talk about it instead. If guests agree to participate, give each guest a paper cup. If there aren't too many guests and the guests can handle it, give them a bottle of water and have them fill each of their to the top of the tape on the outside; if there are crowds or the guests are having trouble, fill it up for them. If you are expecting a lot of visitors, feel free to open more than one bottle to facilitate quick pouring. Ask them to drink the water, explaining that this is so they know what the water tastes like without anything added. After they drink if there is any water remaining they should pour it in the white bucket so as not to interfere with the next step.
Have the guests pour more water from the water bottle in each cup up to the tape or pour it for them. Show them a pipette, explaining that there are marks along the pipettes. The first mark is one milliliter; the second is two and so on. Give them each a pipette and have them add one milliliter of sugar water to their cup. Give them each a stir stick and have them stir, then drink the water. Ask if they can taste the sugar. If they can, they can mark it on the graph.
If the guests couldn't taste the sugar, have them pour out their water in the white bucket so as not to interfere with the next experiment. Have the guests pour more water from the water bottle in each cup up to the tape or pour it for them, then add two milliliters of water to their cup, then stir and drink. Encourage them to continue the experiment until they taste the sugar. All through the experiment, continue to ask questions about what could be in their drinking water, whether they would be able to taste it, how they would tell, and why different people might be able to taste different things.
If the guests are interested, repeat the experiment with salt. Continue to facilitate a discussion about drinking water, asking where they get their water from and who controls what's in their water.
Once the guests are done tasting water, make sure the cart surface is dry, then take out the map. Ask them where they think Pacific Science Center gets its water from, encouraging them to use the map. If they don't know, let them know that the body of water in the lower right is the Cedar River watershed. When it rains or snows, water runs down mountains and into lower lands; a large low point that can hold a lot of this water (such as a valley) is known as a watershed. Ask them how things that they do might affect this water--anything left in streets and yards, such as pet waste, litter, and pesticides can all wash into the water eventually.
Give them the Pacific Science Center magnet and ask them where it goes--anywhere in the upper left is okay. Ask them what they think happens to the water after it leaves the watershed, then give them the other magnets. Have them place the magnets on the map and explain what they think is happening with each magnet. Water at the Cedar River Watershed flows down a river to a dam, which diverts some water for drinking water. This water travels to a water treatment plant, which makes the water safe to drink. After that, drinking water is transported via underground tunnels to reservoirs, which hold the water until it is ready for use. Then people at Pacific Science Center use the water to go to the restroom, wash their hands, drink and do other things.
Ask the visitors what happens after the water is used, and invite them to make hypotheses about the other magnets. Water can either be recycled or dumped. When it is recycled, solid matter (such as poop! yay poop!) is extracted from the water and sent to local farmland as fertilizer. The liquid is then treated and purified, making it once more safe to drink. This water can go to reservoirs and then back to Pacific Science Center (and elsewhere, but who cares). Water that is dumped is treated first to make it less smelly and dangerous for the Puget Sound, where it eventually ends up.
Have the guest trace the path of the water with their finger, letting them know that this is a simplified version of their drinking water cycle. Engage them in a discussion about who they think makes decisions about what can be in water, who treats the water, even the pipes that carry the water. Let them know that they can find out more about the water they drink by looking at the public utilities website of their city, and they can help by picking up pet poop and keeping streets clean.

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Questions To Ask

Does what your water looks like tell you what's in your drinking water?
Does what your water tastes like tell you what's in your drinking water?
How can you tell what's in your drinking water?
How can we make sure our drinking water is safe?
Where do you get your drinking water?
Where does tap water (for showers, washing dishes, etc) go after you use it?
Have you heard of any water issues that concern you?
Why do you think different people can taste the sugar and salt at different amounts?

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Sample Dialogue

Key:

P Presenter
G Guest
Bold italics indicate action.
Italics indicate a note to the presenter.
□ indicates a cue

P	Hi there! Want to try an experiment?
G	Okay!
P	Cool! I have here some water--just plain old water, but some of it has stuff added to it. I have a bit in a glass vial--would you drink this?
G	Maybe.
P	What makes you hesitate?
G	I don't know what's in it.
P	Absolutely! What is something you look at when you're trying to figure out whether your water is safe to drink?
G	I don't know.
P	Cool. Let me show you a different glass vial--would you drink this one?
G	No!
P	Why not?
G	The color.
P	Sure. Color may be a indicator that something is wrong with your water. Now, would you drink the more lightly colored one if it was coming out of your faucet?
G	I guess.
P	Cool. You still don't necessarily know what's in the water, but color could help you make a decision. Want to see what other people decided?
G	Sure.
P	Each of these dots on this graph is a person's decision. These people here wouldn't drink anything darker than bottle number four. These people here wouldn't drink anything darker than bottle number three. Want to make your mark?
G	Okay.
P	Great! You were okay with bottle number three, but not bottle number four, so go ahead and make your mark on four. Want to see what the other ones look like?
G	You want to show me and I am not opposed to seeing it.
P	Here you go--there's a whole range of water colors. What do you think about number seven?
G	Ew!
P	That's what I said! What if I told you this one was perfectly safe to drink--would you try it then?
G	I don't know.
P	That makes sense. Since we don't know what's in the water, we really have to rely on things like whether it grosses us out or not. Want to try another experiment?
G	Sure.
P	This one involves drinking some water and adding salt or sugar to see if we taste it. Are you okay with drinking a little salt or sugar water?
G	I have never been more ready.
P	Awesome. Go ahead and take a cup, and I'll get out a bottle of water. First we're just going to see what plain old water tastes like, so you can compare it when we start adding stuff. Go ahead and pour water in your cup up to the line of tape on the outside.
G	I am great at pouring things.
P	You're extraordinary. Now go ahead and take a sip, getting a feel for how the water tastes.
G	Ahhhh. Refreshing.
P	Fantastic. Since you didn't drink all of it, go ahead and empty your cup in this bucket over here. That way, it won't affect the amount of sugar we're going to add.
G	Splish.
P	Great! Now go ahead and fill your cup up to the line again.
G	Splash.
P	Good job. This is a pipette, and here I have some sugar water. I already mixed some sugar into this so we could just add a very small amount of sugar at a time. See how this pipette has a line on it? You're going to squeeze up sugar water just to that line, and then add that to your cup.
G	I love experiments. Also pipettes.
P	Me too! Here's a stir stick so you can mix that up. Okay, now go ahead and taste your water--can you taste the sugar?
G	Not really.
P	Okay. Do you think you'd be able to taste something that wasn't good for you in your water?
G	Maybe not.
P	Sure. What might be bad for you in water?
G	Um . . . germs?
P	Absolutely? What else?
G	I don't know.
P	In the news they've been talking a lot about lead in water. Lead is a kind of metal. Some metals are okay to have in water; others aren't. With most things, it just matters how much of something is in the water. Okay, let's keep going. Go ahead and empty your cup in the bucket.
G	Splish.
P	This time you'll pour water from the bottle, then add sugar water up to the second line on the pipette.
G	Splash.
P	Great. Mix your water, and taste it again. Can you taste the sugar?
G	Yes!
P	Cool. Want to check out the graph?
G	Okay.
P	This graph shows how much sugar it takes for different people to taste it. You could taste it at two milliliters, so go ahead and make your mark there. Okay, great! This means different people can taste different things. Do you think everyone can tell if their water is unsafe?
G	No.
P	Do you think you could tell?
G	I don't know.
P	Right. So we've got color and we've got taste--those can help us figure out some things about our water. But now I'm starting to think about what might be in our water. Where do you think your drinking water comes from?
G	I don't know.
P	I used to not know either, but then I found out where Pacific Science Center gets their water. Want to see?
G	Sure.
P	This is a map of the greater Seattle area. Can you figure out where Pacific Science Center is?
G	Here?
P	Sure. Go ahead and stick it on there. Now, want to guess on this map where the science center gets its drinking water?
G	Here?
P	Right! We want fresh water so we don't get it from the ocean; we get it from the Cedar River Watershed. A watershed is a low point where fresh water collects. Where do you think water goes after we use it?
G	I don't know.
P	Let's think about water that you throw away. When do you see water going down the drain?
G	Um. When I wash my hands?
P	Right! Or when you take a shower, or wash dishes. Let's see if we can find out what had to happen to water to get from the Cedar River Watershed to our sinks, and then where it goes when it washes down the drain. Here are some magnets that can help us figure it out! Where do you think the water goes from the Cedar River Watershed?
G	I don't know.
P	Let's take a look at this map. Where does the water go?
G	In a river?
P	Right! Some of the water from the river becomes drinking water, but not all of it. We need a way to stop the water so we can split it up. Do you see anything like that?
G	This thing?
P	A dam! Awesome. Take a look at the remaining magnets. What do you think happens next to water you would want to drink?
G	Maybe water treatment?
P	Absolutely. You'll want the water to be clean and safe for you to drink. What happens next?
G	You drink it?
P	Cool. After the water treatment plant you absolutely could. Treated water travels in underground tunnels to the city, but from there it doesn't come out until you use it. What do you think we could use to hold the water until then?
G	This?
P	Right. This is a reservoir. We call them different things depending on where they are; this one is a water tower. Where have you seen one of these?
G	In my neighborhood.
P	Cool! You can go ahead and add it to the map by the science center. The water that comes out of the sinks here is from a reservoir. If we were washing our hands that water would go down the drain--what do you think happens next?
G	Waste water treatment?
P	Cool! Why do you think we would want to treat waste water?
G	I don't know.
P	Can you think of a place on this map waste water might go?
G	The ocean?
P	Awesome, the Puget Sound. So why would we want to treat waste water before putting it in the Puget Sound?
G	So we don't hurt the animals.
P	Cool. What's this other magnet?
G	Recycling?
P	Yeah! What do you think water recylcing means?
G	Um, we reuse it?
P	Exactly. We do a bunch of stuff to it first so that it's clean enough to drink. Recycled water is the same as fresh water--it's all strained and treated and cleaned so it's just like other drinking water. That cleaning process creates some solid waste--can you think of solid waste you wash away with water?
G	Um . . . poop?
P	Absolutely. We use all the poop and food and other stuff and send it out where it can be useful. What uses can poop have?
G	Being smelly and gross.
P	Right. Smelly and gross can be great for plants. So where should we send the solid waste?
G	Gardens?
P	And farms. Do you know where some farms are on this map?
G	Here?
P	Right, there are a lot of farms all around the outskirts of the city. Recycling water is great, because it doesn't hurt the ocean and we can use everything. Thank you for looking at water with me!

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Background Information

Click to jump to any of these topics:

Environmental Health
Water Health
Water Sources
Water Treatment
Waste Water
Flint Water Crisis and Other Dangers

Environmental Health__________________________
Environmental health refers to the conditions within an environment that affect the personal health of an individual living in that environment. These conditions include air, water, and soil quality; exposure to chemicals and radiation; and large systems such as climate. Conditions may also relate to social issues, such as accessibility to health necessities such as water, hygiene products, and education on health issues.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly a quarter of all the world’s diseases could be prevented if these conditions were optimized.

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Water Health__________________________
Water is necessary for drinking, food production, and sanitation, but there is only a limited amount of fresh water. Various factors affect how healthy that water is, including infectious microorganisms, chemicals, and radiation.

We know how to make water safe to drink and use. However, access to that safe water is the main issue when it comes to the environmental health of water. According to WHO, “748 million people lack access to improved drinking-water and it is estimated that 1.8 billion people use a source of drinking-water that is faecally contaminated.” Furthermore, “hundreds of millions of people have no access to soap and water to wash their hands, preventing a basic act that would empower them to block the spread of disease.” ¹

Part of the reason so many people lack access has to do with sanitation. According to WHO, one billion people do not use toilets, which means they defecate in open areas. Feces in streets, fields, or rivers eventually washes into water used for drinking and washing. Incidentally, though toilets are largely accessible in the United States, animal defecation contributes to this problem. The defecation of pets in parks, streets, and even backyards can lead to fecal matter easily washing into city water systems.

Another reason people lack access has to do with the management of water resources. Projects such as dam construction, irrigation, waste water treatment (or lack thereof) and flood control all need regulation in order to ensure the health and safety of water. ²

Further information from WHO: ³

Water-related diseases include:

those due to micro-organisms and chemicals in water people drink;

diseases like schistosomiasis which have part of their lifecycle in water;

diseases like malaria with water-related vectors;

drowning and some injuries;

and others such as legionellosis carried by aerosols containing certain micro-organisms.

Also: ⁴

Almost one tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by:

increasing access to safe drinking water;

improving sanitation and hygiene; and

improving water management to reduce risks of water-borne infectious diseases, and accidental drowning during recreation.

Annually, safer water could prevent:

1.4 million child deaths from diarrhoea;

500 000 deaths from malaria;

860 000 child deaths from malnutrition; and

280 000 deaths from drowning.

In addition, 5 million people can be protected from being seriously incapacitated from lymphatic filariasis and another 5 million from trachoma.

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Water Sources__________________________
Drinking water can be obtained from two sources: surface water and ground water. Surface water is water obtained from rain, melting snow, and ice, which drains into a low area. This low area is sometimes called a catchment, basin, or in North America, a watershed. Ground water refers to water drilled from wells.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 32% of community water services use ground water and 68% use surface water.⁶ A community water system is defined as a public water system that supplies water to people year round; this would include mainly residences. There may be other water systems for facilities such as schools, which supply water regularly but not year-round, and facilities such as Pacific Science Center, which supplies water year-round but mostly for people who do not stay for extended periods of time. According to the EPA, there are over 52,000 community water systems in the US, but only 8% of those systems supply over 82% of the population. While the majority of the population uses water supplied by public utilities, some people do use private wells.

From the City of Seattle website:⁷

From the Cedar River Watershed, melting snow and rain are gathered and stored in the Chester Morse Lake and the Masonry Pool reservoirs created by the Masonry Dam. The dam diverts the water into two large penstocks which drop water 620 feet to the hydroelectric power plant at Cedar Falls, the birthplace of Seattle City Light.

The water is released back into the river, and continues flowing to the Landsburg diversion dam. At Landsburg, a portion of the water is diverted from the river into two large pipelines which run over seven miles to Lake Youngs in Renton. From Lake Youngs, water is pumped a short distance to the Cedar Water Treatment Facility.

The Tolt River Watershed is located in the foothills of the Cascades in east King County. It supplies about 30% of the drinking water for 1.4 million people in the greater Seattle area.

The Tolt Reservoir captures water and snow from the Tolt watershed. Most of this water is released from the dam directly to the South Fork Tolt River. A portion of the water is drawn through penstocks to a small hydroelectric facility one thousand feet below. There it enters a small body of water called the regulating basin. The water then continues its journey, all by gravity, to the Tolt Water Treatment Facility.

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Water Treatment __________________________
From the water source, water is either pumped or diverted to a water treatment center. Below is a simple diagram of how water treatment generally works:⁸

As you can see in the diagram, the main steps are coagulation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. During the coagulation process, alum and other chemicals are added to the water. Alum positively charges negatively charged particles, making them neutral. The neutral particles then stick together to form a gelatinous mass known as 'floc'. Coagulation is often followed by flocculation, which is a gentle stirring that encourages the masses to form even larger masses.

After coagulation, the water passes to large basins known as sedimentation or settling basins. Water moves slowly through these chambers and gravity causes the floc to settle to the bottom due to the heavier weight of the floc. Rotating scrapers remove the floc while clear water above the flock flows on to filtration. Removing the floc ensures not only the removal of clay and silt, but also microbial conteminants, toxic metals, synthetic organic chemicals, iron, and other potentially harmful substances. The longer water is sedimented, the more harmful substances are removed. Sometimes chemicals are added to accelerate the process.

Next the water flows over layers of sand, charcoal and/or gravel. These layers physically obstruct finer sediment as well as absorbing some of it. Usually water undergoes this process several times in order to assure that it is completely filtered. Filtration removes more particles than any other step in the process. Because so much is filtered out by chemical absorption, this process can also selectively retain some particles, such as healthy minerals.

After filtration the water is disinfected, which involves adding chemicals to the water to kill disease-causing germs. The most common added chemicals are chlorine and chloramine. As the Center for Disease Control (CDC) notes, "The type of chloramine [...] used to treat drinking water (monochloramine) is not the same type that can form and harm the indoor air quality around swimming pools (dichloramine or trichloramine)."⁹

More from the CDC:

Many public water systems have to add a disinfectant to the water. The disinfectant must be present in all water found in the pipes that carry the water throughout the community 3. Most communities use either chlorine or chloramines. Some communities switch back and forth between chlorine and chloramines at different times of the year or for other operational reasons 4. Less commonly, utilities use other disinfectants, such as chlorine dioxide 2. Some water systems that use water from a groundwater source (like community wells) do not have to add a disinfectant at all 5. You can find out whether there is a disinfectant in your water, what kind of disinfectant is used, and how well your utility has remained in compliance with the rules about disinfection by obtaining a copy of your utility's consumer confidence report 3. This is an annual report that your utility has to send to all customers every year.

The Cedar River Treatment plant uses chlorination for disinfection, but also injects ozone into the water. This is meant to kill harmful bacteria, viruses, and other disease-causing microorganisms, but the city of Seattle also claims it improves the odor and taste of water. Also according to the city of Seattle, "The Cedar Water Treatment Facility is among the first and is one of the largest facilities in the United States to use UV technology to disinfect drinking water."¹⁰ During this process, water is exposed to intense UV light in order to kill pathogens.

After treatment, water flows through underground pipes to storage reservoirs until it is ready to be used.

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Waste Water __________________________
Waste water is used water. It includes human waste, food scraps, oils, soaps and chemicals, and may be originally collected from sinks, showers, bathtubs, toilets, washing machines and dishwashers. Waster water also includes storm runoff from streets, since such water frequently includes waste and contaminants. Waste water must be treated before being returned to the environment so that fisheries and wildlife habitats are preserved. Treatment of waste water also addresses public health concerns and makes water safe for recreational use.

Wastewater treatment is in some ways quite similar to the treatment of drinking water. First it is screened to remove large solid objects. Then the water is sent to sedimentation tanks, which allow heavier particulates to settle. As is the case in the sedimentation of drinking water, large scrapers in these tanks remove the settled masses, which in this process are known as "sludge". After the sludge is removed, the water is aerated, which encourages particulates and organisms to break down. Afterwards, the water is again sedimented and more sludge is removed. Finally, the water is filtered and released back into the environment.

Some wastewater is recycled, otherwise known as reclaimed. According to the EPA, "Recycled water is most commonly used for nonpotable (not for drinking) purposes, such as agriculture, landscape, public parks, and golf course irrigation." The EPA goes on to say, "Other nonpotable applications include cooling water for power plants and oil refineries, industrial process water for such facilities as paper mills and carpet dyers, toilet flushing, dust control, construction activities, concrete mixing, and artificial lakes."¹¹ Wastewater can also be used as drinking water, but requires further treatment.

Benefits to recycling water include reducing the amount of freshwater diverted from wildlife habitats for drinking water, reduction of waste in sensitive bodies of water (such as the Puget Sound), and reduction in energy use. In an effort to reduce waste in Puget Sound, King County has been using recycled water for irrigation and industry since 1997.¹²

Tight regulations ensure that wastewater is as safe as any other treated drinking water in the US, but despite the benefits of recycling wastewater, there is still stigma attached to reusing water. This article in the New York Times ("As ‘Yuck Factor’ Subsides, Treated Wastewater Flows From Taps" by Felicity Barringer) and this article in National Geographic ("Even Your Evian Was Pee at Some Point" by Charles Fishman) address some of the stigma as well as benefits of used water.

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Flint Water Crisis and Other Dangers__________________________
In 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan switched water sources from Lake Huron to the Flint River in order to save money. CNN provides a good overview of the ensuing crisis:

Historically, the water in the Flint River downstream of Flint has been of poor quality, and was severely degraded during the 1970s, due to "the presence of fecal coliform bacteria, low dissolved oxygen, plant nutrients, oils, and toxic substances." In 2001, the state ordered the monitoring and cleanup of 134 polluted sites within the Flint River watershed, including industrial complexes, landfills and farms laden with pesticides and fertilizer.

According to a class-action lawsuit, the state Department of Environmental Quality wasn't treating the Flint River water with an anti-corrosive agent, in violation of federal law. The river water was found to be 19 times more corrosive than water from Detroit, which was from Lake Huron, according to a study by Virginia Tech.

Since the water wasn't properly treated, lead from aging service lines to homes began leaching into the Flint water supply after the city tapped into the Flint River as its main water source.

Health effects of lead exposure in children include impaired cognition, behavioral disorders, hearing problems and delayed puberty. In pregnant women, lead is associated with reduced fetal growth. In everyone, lead consumption can impact the heart, kidneys and nerves. Although there are medications that may reduce the amount of lead in the blood, treatments for the adverse health effects of lead have yet to be developed.

In late April of 2016, Seattle Public Utilities conducted tests for lead and found high levels in several homes. They followed up with extensive testing but found Seattle water safe to drink. This brief article covers the situation ("Seattle Public Utilities says city water safe after testing for lead" on K5).

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Credits

Activity creation: Joy DeLyria and Lauren Slettedahl
Prop creation: Lauren Slettedahl
Activity write-up: Joy DeLyria

Recommended websites:

References:
1. WHO: Water supply, sanitation and hygiene development
2. WHO: Water resources
3. WHO: Water-related diseases
4. WHO: Water-related diseases
5. Tauranga City: Water Supply System
6. EPA: FACTOIDS: Drinking Water and Ground Water Statistics for 2007
7. Seattle: Water System Overview
8. eSchoolToday: How Is Water Treated For Use In Homes?
9. CDC: Disinfection with Chlorine & Chloramine
10. Seattle: Ozone Generation and Injection Facility
11. EPA: Water Recycling and Reuse: The Environmental Benefits
12. King County: Recycled Water Program Overview