APES Study: School water fountains have unusual level of copper

Several water fountains near the tennis courts, pool and track contain higher than recommended levels of copper, according to AP Environmental Science students, and confirmed by tests run by The Falcon.

Based on results found by several AP Environmental Science students during a lab, the water fountains most commonly used by athletes, including the track and pool-deck water fountains, may have an increased level of copper.

While the water fountains closer to the classrooms of the school are newer and have onboard filters, the water fountains on the outskirts of the school were not upgraded in the installations a few years ago. The old water fountains are recognizable from their copper piping. Most of them are outdoors and that their housing is a barrel instead of a metal casing.

When Falcon staff repeated the APES students’ tests with the help of APES teacher Kristen Thompson, they found that the amount of copper in the various fountains varied, but almost all of the old fountains had a higher concentration than the EPA’s recommended 1.3 parts per million (ppm).

The copper testing kits, while not as accurate as professional tests, gave results of 4 ppm for the water fountain on the far side of the track, about 3 ppm for the pool-front water fountain and marked the filtered water fountains as totally clean.

On its website, the EPA says that people who drink the contaminated water may, “with short-term exposure, experience gastrointestinal distress, and with long-term exposure, may experience liver or kidney damage.”

Assistant principal Kevin Mount said the water at the school is, to his knowledge, not tested regularly except by municipal water treatment. If the contamination occurs between the main water line and the end of the fountain, he said the school wouldn’t know about it.

When asked about the problem, San Jose Water Company suggested testing a faucet as well, to determine if the culprits were the water fountains themselves or the pipes underneath. When tested, the boys’ bathroom faucet closest to the English wing tested negative for copper. These results suggest that the fountains themselves, which are old and rusty, are to blame for the concentrations of water in the copper.

While copper pipes have been the industry standard for a long time, newer fountains and fixtures typically use PVC or CPVC for piping, especially in outdoor water systems. The EPA suggests checking outdoor fixtures if they have copper in them at least every five years, especially if they give off a coppery taste or color, which the outdoor fountains do.

Since the issue lies only in the individual water fountains, and not the entire system, a possible solution is to replace the existing water fountains with filtered ones. The cost to replace each fountain would be about $500, according to the manufacturer of the fountains currently in use near the classrooms.