Arcata High School staff work hard to keep our campus safe and clean, but with that said, the campus is no utopia. Students report many problems, and recently, water fountains and water quality on campus have raised much concern.
“We need more [water fountains] so people can stay hydrated,” said junior class president, John Adams.
With multiple water stations inoperable due to construction, one or two more water fountains at the front of the school would be helpful, according to Adams.
Many students and teachers question the quality of water of existing fountains as well.
“Someone needs to look at the filters because the water is nasty,” Adams
said.
The hydration station upstairs in the science wing has come under extra scrutiny. Many students, including AHS senior Eron Luoma, report that the water has become discolored and strange-tasting within the last couple of weeks.
“It tasted like metal and a little bit of plastic bottle,” Luoma said.
After filling his water bottle, Luoma saw that it wasn’t just the taste that was off-putting.
“It had a sort of rusty hue to it and there were little black specks floating in it,” Luoma said.
The issue is ongoing, and students and teachers continue to report similar incidents.
“That water tastes like it came out of a lead pipe,” senior class president Jolie Gibbs said.
The water fountain outside of history and Leadership teacher Jennifer Coriell’s classroom has also been reported as malfunctioning.
“It bubbled brown water,” Coriell said.
The cause behind the malfunctioning fountains is still unknown. Many students believe the dis-colored water is tied to faulty water filters or the construction being performed on campus, but no proof of either theory has been found.
Adams and other affected students emphasize the need for a solution to this problem on campus.
“We should be drinking more water as people [because] it is very important to our health… People should feel encouraged to drink more water,” Adams said.
The multitude of reports questioning the quality of water on campus brings up safety concerns. Reports of brown water on campus concern those who have been drinking from the water fountains and do nothing to encourage students to drink more water.