Glen Rock April 24, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 9 Glen Rock High School and Middle School students are going back to the tap. They are now using a recently installed water bottle filling station instead of disposable, single-use water bottles. The station, which also functions as a water fountain, dispenses chilled, charcoal-filtered water and allows individuals to fill reusable bottles more conveniently than they could if they were using a regular water fountain. The goal is to reduce pollution and improve air quality by reducing the number of single-use water bottles thrown away by Glen Rock’s middle school and high school students. One hydration station was installed in February in the high school sports lobby, and a second one is now being installed near the middle school gym. Each station contains a counter that tracks the number of uses and number of plastic bottles avoided. Nearly 7,000 uses have already been recorded at the first station. The initiative is a joint effort of the Glen Rock High School administration, the Students for Environmental Action, and the Glen Rock Environmental Commission. Glen Rock junior and GREC student intern Lara Jones proposed the hydration station concept in the fall of 2012 after watching the film “Tapped,” and began exploring possible vendors and funding options. “I began this project last year because of my love of nature and concern to preserve the environment,” Jones explained. As it turned out, Glen Rock High School was exploring the same concept. Pleased to learn that the school had just purchased two hydration stations for the school gyms, Jones began publicly advocating for the expansion of the effort to include a third station in the cafeteria. High School Principal John Arlotta fully supported the effort and approved the purchase of a third hydration station. In collaboration with Carlo Cella, former head of the Glen Rock Board of Education Operations Committee, School Business Administrator Mike Rinderknecht, and Buildings and Grounds Manager Sandy Marinos, a third station will be installed in the cafeteria later this spring. Students will soon have the opportunity to drink filtered, good tasting, cooled water for free, while reducing consumption and waste of plastic water bottles. “I commend Lara for all her hard work on this initia- Students ditch plastic bottles, use hydration station Left: Jennifer Godfrey fills a reuseable water bottle at the hydration station while friends look on. Above: A ticker counts the waste eliminated from disposable plastic bottles. tive. Lara is extremely environmentally aware and she has certainly been a role model for leading by example,” said GRHS Principal Arlotta. Heather McDermott, GRHS environmental science teacher and Students for Environmental Action Club advisor, worked with Jones to develop an awareness campaign and classroom education. Science teachers are showing excerpts of the acclaimed documentary “Tapped,” which exposes the dangers created by plastic water bottles. SEA club members have helped by posting flyers and spreading the word about the “Back to Tap” message. This message is also being spread through posters, morning announcements, and classroom discussions, where students are learning about the far-reaching impacts of the water bottle industry. The students hope to work with Pomptonian Food Service to monitor water bottle sales and track the impact of the hydration stations. Plastic bottles negatively impact the environment and human health in several respects. Petroleum is used to create and transport the bottles, exposing factory workers to toxins and releasing pollutants and greenhouse gases. Bottled water companies frequently obtain water from municipal supplies, depleting water available to residents and other businesses. In addition, carelessly discarded plastic bottles reach the oceans, where they degrade and enter the marine ecosystems, and the food chain, which includes seafood consumed by humans. “I’m really happy with how successful it has been so far based on the large number of students who are using the hydration station to refill their water bottles on a daily basis,” Jones concluded.