Kevin Jamison Ivette Mendoza Sara Ramirez Ruth Rodriguez Water Quality at UIC College Prep: An Intervention to improve

our Health, Our School, and Our Education Water is an important part of life. Our bodies are mostly made up of water, and we consume water daily. So, shouldnt our water be clean in an environment in which we spend at least 8 hours? In order to improve the schools water quality, our group designed a study to test the water sources in UIC College Prep. We asked ourselves: how can we as UIC College Prep students, improve the purification of the water fountains and kitchen faucets at UICCP? However, instead of asking the students, we thought it would be better if we asked the staff members about the importance of water filters for our school. At first, the staff was skeptical about getting new filters; as a result, we felt it was our job to determine the water quality at UICCP and then educate teachers and staff about the quality of the water at UICCP. Our goal, or outcome, is that we want staff members to realize the need for water filters because low water quality leads to more risks of getting sick, damage to the plumbing, and bad water taste. In order to know how water quality was determined, our group researched what components in water could be harmful and what levels of those components to be considered for good water quality. In our research, we discovered that water quality was determined by the metals in the water (nitrate, nitrite, bromide, copper, and Iron), total chlorine, the corrosivity (when air bonds to metal and creates rust that bleeds into the water), alkalinity (the capacity to neutralize acidity- pH), pH (acidity of the water), and total hardness of the water (the amount of magnesium and calcium in the water).

After we discovered that the water had so many components to test, we decided it would be best to test all components and determine the corrosivity. In our research, we also found another study done by Eileen A. Murph that explained and gave an equation to determine corrosivity: AI = pH + log [(total alkalinity) x (calcium hardness)]. This equation has ranges for the result, AI, that give you an indication if the water corrosive (AI<10), mildly corrosive (AI between 10 and 11.9), or not corrosive ( AI >12). The tests were made using testing materials from AquaChek and the ProLab Water Quality kit. Aqua Chek tested the total hardness, total bromine, total alkalinity, and the pH. ProLab tested the iron, copper, nitrate, and nitrite. In both experiments, we used pH strips and test strips that we dipped in the water, dried, and then compared to the given key to determine the level of the component (refer to appendix page 1 and 2 for test strips results). From both experiments, we determined that nitrate, nitrite, bromide, copper, iron, total chlorine, and even iron bacteria and hydrogen sulfide were not harming our water sources at UICCP; however, we did notice that alkaline levels, pH levels, and hardness levels were a little hazardous (refer to threat map on appendix page 4). The pHs, though it doesn't have dire consequences to health, were slightly basic in the water fountains. Though they did show up only slightly basic, they are hazardous enough to take precautions. For the hardness of the water, it was overall really low. The hardness being low is not good because it is an indication of corrosivity. Furthermore, the alkaline levels were off-the-charts high. The highest color for alkalinity was blue, and that is where it landed. The levels were over 240 (which is 120 more that what an ok level would be). Overall, we realized that the focus threats were in the alkalinity, pH, hardness, and corrosivity. We created an asset map and threat map according to the data we collected from water samples from UIC College Prep (refer to pages 3 and 4 of appendix). Our asset map showed the

places where we collected water samples. Our locations were chosen from the first floor, and we chose places where students interact and dont interact alike. We decided that the locations in the first floor were the best locations to test because everything in the second, third, and fourth floor that has water access was connected back to the plumbing used in the same sources we picked in the first level. In the threat map, we labelled the significant findings (alkalinity, pH, and hardness). We chose to still include the other components in the key because it lets staff members know that the components that are labelled were not the only things tested. In the threat map (refer to appendix page 4), we gave the experimental data collected from the test strips for threats at each location (corrosivity was calculated with the average pH (7.0) and the hardness average). The corrosivity that we calculated with the data and information was a 11.38 (mildly corrosive). Our methods led us to find out a lot about our water at UIC College Prep. We found out that the average ph of the water was between 6.9 and 8.4. This tells us that the water is more basic. A basic ph makes the water taste differently. We also found that the schools water is very soft and has a high alkalinity. This means that the waters is corrosive to the plumbing; therefore, the water has low quality. A high alkalinity can cause all of the following: scale formation on the floor, plumbing, and equipment, minimizes the effectiveness of chlorine, makes pH difficult to adjust, and can cause eye and skin irritation. In order to first determine if the staff members had any knowledge of what good water quality is, we conducted a survey. The survey also helped us determine if staff members were willing to support an intervention to install new water filters. We divided the survey into three parts: before information is presented, information about the schools water quality, and after the information is presented. For the before the information is presented section, we asked staff

members if they believed our school water is safe to drink; most of them said somewhat but none said it was completely clean. This showed us that staff members believe our school has low water quality. However, staff members were .03 times as likely to believe our school needs water filters. In other words, teachers from UICCP were 30 times as likely to believe we don't need water filters. This gave us more evidence to support our claim that teachers dont think our school has high water quality, but they dont know the damages low water quality can cause and thats why theyre not willing to support an intervention. As a result, in our information section of our survey, we informed the staff members about the facts of the schools water quality and the effects it can have. For example, we learned that our schools water is corrosive and can be causing damages to the plumbing. As we saw teachers and staff members read through the information section, their faces looked shocked and unpleasant. From this, we can conclude that staff members did not know much about our schools water quality, and they were surprised to find out how bad it actually is. Furthermore, in our after the information is presented section, we asked the staff members once again if they would be willing to support an intervention for better water quality in our school. One hundred percent of the staff members said they will support an intervention. The data collected from our surveys is shown below.
Relative Risk Believe we need Water Filters (answers 10 or above for Q 3) Doesn't Believe We Need Water Filters (answers 5 or below for Q 3)

Before Informed About Water Quality After

12

20

Informed About Water Quality

*To reference the survey questions, look at appendix page 5

We had hoped that staff members would agree with us that the quality of the water from the water fountains isnt very good. After they were given information and they were shown that the water is actually somewhat corrosive, staff members realized UIC College Prep needs water filters for the water fountains. As we gathered more data, we included these facts in the information we presented to the staff. As you can see in the Relative Risk chart, before our information was given to teachers, only 8 of them wanted filters for our water fountains. After the information, all of the teachers (the same teachers that were surveyed before) believed we needed new water filters. This shows that the power of knowledge about the schools water quality plays a big role in the staff members desire to get new water filters.