The water fountains in the Field House Commons. Photo by Vikram Verma
Around Moorestown Friends, many water fountains are showing red filter lights, and some are covered with garbage bags. Students have questioned whether or not the water is safe to drink. Head of Maintenance Julius Trimbach said, “The water fountains are all fully safe to drink and there are a few distinct reasons as to why some have red lights and others are closed off.”
Trimbach noted that the three lights, colored green, yellow, and red, do not indicate the cleanliness of the water when illuminated, but instead the volume of water that has been filtered through the fountain. In other words, it cannot tell the actual filter status, but how long the filter has been in use. According to Trimbach, the water is “perfectly safe to drink because this filter is added to accompany the already filtered city water,” and “the filters were able to be replaced, but there were slight delays due to supply chain issues happening everywhere.”
Beyond the filters, other concerns included “someone smashing the push buttons in and pouring soup down the drain,” Trimbach noted. Both of these events, in conjunction with the elongated repair time, led to the water fountain on the main floor being shut off and covered with a tarp.
During this time, students had to figure out which water fountains were active and which were not, and plan around that. Athlete Joshua Carroll ’25 mentioned how the unusable water fountains affected his school life, saying, “The lack of water fountains is very rough because I need to stay hydrated for my gym activities and sports, and only having a few water fountains available is making it very difficult for me.”
Huseyin Deryal ’23, who is also involved in athletics, said he was not as affected by the repair situation as he will “usually get water from the dining hall, so not being able to refill is not the biggest problem.” Like Huseyin, many other students have used other water sources like vending machines and the dining hall drink dispenser to refill their bottles while hallway fountains are being repaired.
