Water crisis at Owasso High School?
By Mallory Sepúlveda
Last December, OHS’s Hidden Figures Book Club finished reading “Poisoned Water” by Candy J. Cooper and Marc Aronson. This book detailed the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, during which tap water in Flint contained a dangerous amount of lead—almost 1,000 times the maximum level set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. One of the causes for lead contaminants was low water pH levels, which led to corrosion of Flint’s pipes. Alarm spread through the OHS Marine Ecology class when they found even lower pH levels throughout the East Campus; however, the results turned out to be faulty.
“[We found that] it’s really acidic,” stated Marine Ecology teacher Courtney Robison. “Every water fountain in the building had a pH of 5.5. There was [only] one that had a 6.5, which is the bare minimum [recommendation for drinking water].”
While doing a lab which mimicked the process of ocean acidification, students noticed that their control samples—water from the fountain with nothing added—had a surprisingly low pH. Robison changed the class’s plans, and the next day students collected water samples from water fountains throughout the East Campus. Like the first samples, the new samples had low pH levels.
Photo of students Andie Murphy, Cameron Wilson and Zoë Yale collecting water samples taken by Mallory Sepúlveda
“It’s bad to have a low pH in your water [because] it’ll start corroding the inside of the pipes and putting all the metals that are in the pipes into your water,” explained senior Marine Ecology student Mia Willman.
After a second round of testing in which results were almost the same, concern began to rise.
“I know some other people in my class … were going home and telling their parents about how the water at the school is bad,” relayed Willman. “And Mrs. Robison, the next day, was like, ‘Guys, it’s okay.’”
The results from the second round of samples were almost the same, but not identical. An outlier from before, with a pH of 6.5, dropped down to match the others at 5.5. This sudden change surprised Robison even further, so she did another test with a new electric pH meter she had purchased.
“[Robison] was telling me how [another round of water samples] came back really low again, like 5.5-6,” remarked junior Zoë Yale. “And then she got a cup of water from one of the sinks and she was testing it [with a new electric pH meter], and it came back [around] an 8. We tested the same [water with a liquid testing kit] and it [also] came back an 8.”
Photo of Zoë Yale collecting a water sample taken by Mallory Sepúlveda
Robison and her students now had conflicting results which placed suspicion on their previously gathered data. Additionally, AP Biology teacher Gail Ciancio tested her adjacent classroom’s water and found a pH level around 8.
“We [asked], ‘What’s the difference between [this time and] last time?’ And [Robison] was like, ‘The last time I was using the pH strips, so let me go get those and see what they’re reading at.’” Yale continued, “[The same water] came back at [around] 5. So [Robison] said that we probably need to do even more testing, but for now, the general conclusion is the pH strips just read it wrong, and something’s up with them.”
Photo of pH measuring materials taken by Mallory Sepúlveda
Fortunately, Robison concluded that there is not, in fact, a water crisis at Owasso High School, only a pH strip crisis.
“[Robison] was like, ‘I think the really expensive pH strips I bought just suck,’” laughed Willman.
Through this spontaneous experiment, it became extremely clear to Marine Ecology students why repetition is a vital part of the scientific process.
“It’s kind of a general rule in science; you never do one test and say that’s the ‘for sure’ result. You always have to test more than once,” advised Yale.