SMU's new Atrium & Global Learning Commons has a living wall, an experimental green roof...and one public water source. Photo: Krista Armstrong
Fewer free water sources on university campuses
Drinking fountains are drying up, changing shape
(0)Trying to find a drinking fountain in one of the new buildings on Halifax university campuses? It might take awhile.
The newest academic building in Halifax is Saint Mary’s University’s’ Atrium & Global Learning Commons, which opened on October 20, 2009. Other than bathrooms, there is only one free water source in the three-storey, 43,000 square foot building: the Hydration Station.
This wall-mounted, sensor-activated system pours chilled tap water into a bottle or other receptacle.
Gabrielle Morrison, chair of the Atrium Steering Committee, says the decision to install it was made “in the spirit of sustainability” because it encourages using tap water and reusable bottles.
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Third-year business student Keith MacInnis tops up his water bottle at SMU's Hydration Station. Photo: Krista Armstrong
Even though there is only one source, Morrison says its location on the main floor is high-traffic and easily accessible. The buildings that the Atrium attaches to – Burke and the Science Building – are both outfitted with traditional drinking fountains.
But a report released last month by the Polaris Institute, a citizen action group, concludes that drinking fountains are disappearing from Canadian university campuses.
The report found that the Dalhousie’s Kenneth C. Rowe Management building, a five-storey, 11,000 square metre tenement that opened in 2005, had only a single drinking fountain for the entire building.
The report states that the absence of fountains can be attributed to legal loopholes in building codes and contracts with beverage companies.
Jocelyne Rankin, Water Coordinator for Halifax’s Ecology Action Centre, says she found it difficult to find free water at the Rowe Management building. She would bring a water bottle from home and either fill it with lukewarm water from a washroom or wait in line at the on-site coffee shop to have the workers fill it from a tap.
Rankin, who completed a master’s degree in environmental studies from Dalhousie in 2008, says if a student was pressed for time, bottled water from a campus vending machine was an appealing alternative. Not having water, she says, was not an option.
“If I’m going to be sitting in the three-hour class, I’m going to get thirsty,” she said.
Nova Scotia’s Occupational Health and Safety Act requires that an employer make accessible potable drinking water no further than 200m from the work place.
Dave Briggins, Manager of Water & Waste Water Branch of the Department of Labour, says that this also applies public buildings such as universities and libraries.
Many provincial building codes – including Nova Scotia’s – allow this access to include water obtained from washroom taps.
Polaris cites this as a reason why water fountains are not included in building plans and are not being replaced as they break down.
Rankin says tap water in bathrooms is every bit as clean as water from another tap, but that the perception of germs may keep people from using it.
She says it’s also not as cold as a drink that comes from a vending machine.
University contracts with beverage companies, such as Coca Cola and Pepsi, are common on university campuses. The company gives the university money to sell its product exclusively on campus; in exchange, the company gets a share the 18-24 year old student market in Canada. According to the Academic Matters campus marketing firm, this share represents a total of 1.6 million people and $2 billion annually in non-academic expenditures.
Gary Schmeisser, director of facilities management at SMU, says the university’s contract with Coca Cola had nothing to do with the decision for only one water source. To that end, he says SMU made a conscious decision not to put pop machines in the commons area. There is one bank of vending machines at the internal entrance to the new building.
Keith MacInnis, a third-year business student, likes Hydration Station water system.
“It’s clean tasting,” he said.
Staff member Adrienne McCarthy says the new system seems more hygienic than a traditional drinking fountain.
“I think it’d be nice to see more of them pop up on campus,” she said.
There are no plans for additional Hydration Stations on campus, but Morrison says this may change depending on campus response to the one in the Atrium.
As they go into a $26-million renovation of the McNally Main Building, the university will be evaluating the effectiveness of this one in their decision to replace drinking fountains on campus in time.
Disclosure: Krista Armstrong worked in the External Affairs Department at Saint Mary’s University from 2005 – 2008.
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