LZHS helping environment with new water stations

New water coolers at Lake Zurich High School are encouraging students and teachers to stay hydrated and help the environment.

Three tables equipped with four 5-gallon coolers have been set up in the school's cafeteria. They're filled with fresh tap water several times a day.

Drinks are free. Anyone who wants some just needs to walk up with his or her own water bottle.

The effort is expected to eliminate the use of 100,000 disposable, single-serving water bottles a year, District 95 officials said.

That increased conservation is one of the reasons special education teacher Stephanie Piggott gets water from the stations three or four times a day.

“I don't like to pay for water or to waste the bottles,” Piggott explained. “So I just bring my own bottle and fill it.”

The water program was launched by Southwest Foodservice Excellence, the Arizona company that handles the district's nutritional needs.

Students bought 750,000 bottles of water during breakfast and lunch periods last year because they were allowed to trade vegetables or sides for water, said Corey Wilsey, a regional director of operations for Southwest Foodservice.

Negative student opinions about the school's water fountains partially was to blame, Wilsey said.

“Trash cans would be filled up (with empty bottles),” Wilsey said.

Trading sides for water actually violates state nutritional rules, Wilsey said. So this year, trading isn't allowed at the school, he said.

But then students expressed concerns about water being available only as an extra purchase during lunch, Principal Kim Kolze said.

The water stations were the result of talks between student leaders and Southwest Foodservice, Kolze said.

Wilsey sees the water stations as an educational opportunity for students. They show the teens they don't need to buy water to drink some, he said.

The Rubbermaid coolers cost $22 each at a local home-improvement store, District 95 spokeswoman Jean Malek said. Officials chose relatively small coolers that fit in dishwashing machines, which allows for daily cleaning, she said.

Students and employees can bring their own reusable bottles or purchase bottles with the Lake Zurich High logo, Kolze said.

“The kids are using them,” Kolze said. “(And) it's saving them money.”

Reducing the use of single-serving water bottles has been a goal for environmental activists at high schools and colleges across the country.

At the College of Lake County's main campus in Grayslake, water fountains built to accommodate reusable bottles have been installed at the campus' primary entrance and in a physical education building.

The machines include digital readers that estimate how many plastic water bottles were saved by fill-ups.

College and university campuses in Kentucky have similar machines. Some colleges, including two in Minnesota, have gone further by banning the sale of bottled water.

At Lake Zurich High, the water stations are in only the cafeteria so Southwest Foodservice employees can monitor them and prevent tampering, Wilsey said.

Activity at the stations was light during one recent lunch period. Of the hundreds of students in the cafeteria, only a few filled up bottles.

Junior Gil Juarez was among them.

“I keep one water bottle in my backpack, and I come here whenever I need a refill,” Juarez said.

Vending machines in the cafeteria offer drinks for sale, too. Not long after Juarez got his free water, junior James DeGeorge spent $1.25 for a bottle of Powerade.

But it wasn't because DeGeorge doesn't like the free water.

“I just forgot my water (bottle) today,” he said.