Loyola’s water isn’t what students think it is. In the first week of December, I conducted an investigation around campus by sampling from numerous water fountains in order to determine one goal: the water quality at Loyola High School. As Loyola is the oldest continually operating school in all of Southern California, it is important to test the drinking water of the school. It can be assumed that Loyola possesses old pipes, especially in older buildings. When pipes become old, they tend to create issues around contamination, discolorization and a build-up of crystals and minerals such as magnesium and calcium levels in the water within old pipes.
After taking these tests, analyzing them and comparing them, I made a generalized claim. The schools’ water is safe and drinkable with the exception of one small issue: Loyola’s water is ‘hard.’ The hardness of water refers to the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium within it
In the words of Doctor Raechel Hill, Environmental Science teacher at Loyola High School, “A majority of the water that Los Angeles receives is from the Colorado River. The Colorado River is very big and very long, and starts all the way far up north in Canada. As the river flows, it carves through the US picking up bits and pieces of rock, sediment, calcium and other minerals. We are down here in the South, so we are at the tail-end of the Colorado which means lots of these minerals have built up in the water.”
Hill then summarized, “Generally, it is okay to drink hard water, though it isn’t the best option, it won’t hurt you in the long term. Although 425ppm is still higher than normal, all of Southern California tends to have quite hard water anyways.” 1ppm is equivalent to 0.0001% of the water.
Though the calcium and magnesium content in the water of areas in East LA happens to be above average, being 0.0093%-0.0291%, it stands at nothing compared to the tests from Loyola, which showed results twice that amount being between 0.0425% and 0.07%.
Though data linking the consumption of ‘hard’ water to any major health effects tends to be questionable around campus, there are exceptions that students should be aware of before continuing to drink the school’s water. In some cases, ingesting high levels of calcium and magnesium has links to bowel problems, cramping, weak bones and in extreme cases cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even cancer.
Athletes in particular should be wary of adding electrolytes to this water since they add to the excess of minerals on top of the increased magnesium and calcium levels that this ‘hard’ water already has. These increased levels should not be taken lightly and can lead to hypercalcemia, which is a result of too many minerals within the blood.
Students should also note that despite belief in the contrary, all of the water at Loyola, from the ground to the filtered drinking fountains, displayed nearly identical results. In conclusion, when students are thirsty after their intramural soccer games, they should be conscious that the water from the hoses and fountains is the same.
