Lesson 09 – Who Protects Source Water
This is Lesson 9, “Who Protects Source Water?” from the Drinking Water: Protecting the Source curriculum, which introduces students to standards for drinking water and explores who is responsible for upholding and enforcing them. Students learn about the Safe Drinking Water Act and participate in a role-playing mock town meeting on a proposed underground storage tank farm to weigh the risks and benefits of community development from multiple stakeholder perspectives.
At a glance
- Learning objectives
-
- 9.1 Describe who is responsible for protecting public and private drinking water sources in a community. (Broadly)
- 9.2 Describe the roles of landowners, farmers, local community leaders and others protecting and in conserving drinking water resources.
- Time required
- 60 minutes
- Grade level
- 9-12
- Materials
-
- Slide SW.9.1.TM.A – Ensuring Safe Drinking Water
- Drinking Water Protection, EPA (http://water.epa.gov/drink/drinkingwaterprotection.cfm)
- Pollution Prevention and Control, EPA (http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/)
- Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA (http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/index.cfm)
- Safe Drinking Water Act poster, EPA
- Standards and Risk Management, EPA (http://water.epa.gov/drink/standardsriskmanagement.cfm)
- Source Water Collaborative (www.sourcewatercollaborative.org)
- Activity Worksheet SW.9.2.AS: Decision Making – A Mock Town Meeting on a Proposed Tank Farm
- US EPA Office of Underground Storage Tanks (http://www.epa.gov/oust/)
- Computer
- LCD projector
- Screen
- Key Terms
- Conservation; Decision maker; Protection; Safe Drinking Water Act; Stakeholder; Underground storage tank; Watershed
Downloads & Links
Aligned Standards
National Science Education Standards for Grades 9 – 12
- Content Standard AAbilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry: Design and conduct scientific investigations.
- Content Standard AAbilities Necessary to Do Scientific Inquiry: Design and conduct scientific investigations.
- Content Standard FScience in Personal and Social Perspectives: Natural Resources – Human populations use resources in the environment in order to maintain and improve their existence. Natural resources have been and will continue to be used to maintain human populations.