Last fall we in 3E-COE performed water tests to ascertain the quality of our drinking water. Our club along with the administration of the College of Education including Deans Monk and Edmondson that if we want to move people away from disposable single-use Aquafina (and others too), then we should know some things about how our water tastes within the confines of the College of Education.
So we did "objective" tests that measured hardness, pH, iron, and temperature to gauge the taste of the water. The results from our Office of Physical Plant (OPP) have come back and some switches have been done.
Steve Maruszewski of our OPP writes, "As it turns out there were only a couple of locations that were found to be of concern and the concern was over temperature and not quality. Two of those locations could not be changed because of the pipe runs, so contrary to our desired approach we had to install water coolers with mechanical refrigeration. In addition the water bottle filling station has been installed on the first floor. Aside from some electrical work associated with one of the water coolers, the facilities have suitable drinking water available at all kitchenettes, drinking fountains and water coolers."
There you go. Drink the water at the College of Education. It tastes good. And, as I learned from the water operations folks at OPP, it's tested several times a day by professional staff who report to operations. Penn State has more people securing and testing water than the entire FDA does for all of the bottled water industry. PSU water sounds good to me.
Drink up.
Phenomenal! Great work, 3E-COE!! The penultimate sentence really drives this home: not only is the water quality great, but also the university staff takes water quality more seriously than do those involved in regulating bottled water quality! No surprise, in some ways, but this drives home the larger fact that when it comes to bottled water, all that seems to matter is the bottom line: taking your money.
ReplyDeleteFor areas where revenue generated by vending machines, or lack there of, is an important consideration, there is an emerging eco-friendly vending alternative. Nick-named b.y.o.b. machines, they provide the water or beverage, minus the disposable plastic bottle.
ReplyDeleteSee www.aquastarintl.com for more information.
We already have water bottle filling stations.
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