Graphic organizer Grade 10 Careers & CTE
Harrowgale's Discolored Water Call: A Role Handoff Chain
A grade 10 careers organizer tracing a discolored water complaint through six utility roles, with an exception table and a completed teacher exemplar.
Objectives
- Students will sequence the six steps a utility follows after a discolored water complaint.
- Students will name the role responsible at each step and what that role checks.
- Students will identify the exception conditions that change the response path.
Vocabulary
- Chlorine residual
- Chlorine residual is the small amount of chlorine still left in the water after it leaves the treatment plant. It keeps protecting the water from germs all the way to your faucet.
- Cross-connection
- A cross-connection is any place where drinking water pipes are linked to something dirty, like a garden hose left sitting in a bucket of soapy water. If the flow reverses, the dirty water can get sucked in.
Also: service ticket, unidirectional flushing, chain of custody
Teacher overview
This organizer is a six-step handoff chain with an attached exception table. Students trace one discolored water complaint through a fictional utility in the town of Harrowgale, naming the role that owns each step, what that role checks, and where the ticket goes next. The exception table captures the special cases that pull the response off the normal path. One point shapes how students read the whole chain and is worth stating before they begin. Brown or yellow water does not by itself mean the water is contaminated, and it does not mean the utility has put rust into the pipes. Discoloration usually comes from iron and manganese sediment that has settled in the mains and been stirred up by a change in flow, such as a hydrant opening or a pump starting. It is most often an aesthetic problem, yet the utility still tests every complaint, because color can occasionally signal something that matters, and only a field check tells the two apart.
Organizer
Fill in the blank cells. Work down the chain in order. Each row hands the ticket to the next row. The scenario is a fictional one. A caller on Wicklow Street reports brown water from the cold tap at seven in the morning. Use the role list to decide who owns each step: customer service representative, water quality technician, distribution operator, flushing crew lead, laboratory analyst, compliance coordinator.
| Step | What happens at this step | Role responsible | What that role checks or records | Hands off to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The call arrives | → | |||
| 2. Screening questions | → | |||
| 3. Field visit and field test | → | |||
| 4. Corrective action in the field | → | |||
| 5. Follow-up sample and result | → | |||
| 6. Record, report, close | → (ticket closed) |
Exception table. Fill in what the procedure requires when each condition is found.
| If this is found | Then the procedure changes to |
|---|---|
| The field chlorine residual is below the system's minimum | |
| Three addresses on the same block call within one hour | |
| The caller describes suds, an oily film, or a sweet smell | |
| The complaint follows a main repair on that street the day before |
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Completed Exemplar
| Step | What happens at this step | Role responsible | What that role checks or records | Hands off to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The call arrives | The caller reports brown water and a service ticket is opened with the address, time, and description. | Customer service representative | Exact address, time the water was first noticed, whether it is hot or cold water, and a callback number. | → Step 2 |
| 2. Screening questions | Scripted questions separate a household plumbing issue from a system issue. | Water quality technician | Whether neighbors are affected, whether the water clears after running the tap, and whether a water heater is involved. | → Step 3 |
| 3. Field visit and field test | Water is tested at the nearest hydrant and at the customer's outside tap. | Distribution operator | Chlorine residual against the 0.2 to 2.0 mg/L range systems typically hold, plus turbidity, color, and system pressure. | → Step 4 |
| 4. Corrective action in the field | The crew runs unidirectional flushing on the affected main until the water clears. | Flushing crew lead | Which valves were closed, the hydrant used, flushing duration, and the point at which the discharge ran clear. | → Step 5 |
| 5. Follow-up sample and result | A sample is collected and delivered to the laboratory under chain of custody. | Laboratory analyst | Sample time, seal, holding time, and the result for the parameters requested. | → Step 6 |
| 6. Record, report, close | The event is written into the complaint log and the ticket is closed with a callback to the customer. | Compliance coordinator | Whether any result exceeded a standard, whether the event must be reported to the state, and what the customer was told. | → (ticket closed) |
| If this is found | Then the procedure changes to |
|---|---|
| The field chlorine residual is below the system's minimum | Do not close the ticket. Notify the operator in responsible charge, collect a bacteriological sample, and continue flushing until the residual recovers. |
| Three addresses on the same block call within one hour | Treat it as an area event rather than one complaint. Notify the on-call supervisor and check for a main break, a hydrant in use, or a pump that started on that zone. |
| The caller describes suds, an oily film, or a sweet smell | Treat it as a possible cross-connection. Isolate the service, advise the customer not to drink the water, and notify the state drinking water program. |
| The complaint follows a main repair on that street the day before | Record the repair as the likely source of disturbed sediment, flush first, and check whether the repair crew's own flushing was documented. |
Differentiation
Support
Pre-fill rows 1 and 6 as models, and give students the six role names on cut-apart cards to place in the chain before they write anything. Provide a word bank for the checking column that includes residual, turbidity, pressure, chain of custody, and callback.
Extension
Ask students to add a seventh row for the case where the laboratory result comes back showing total coliform present. They must name the role that owns the notification, what the customer is told, and what deadline applies, then explain why that row cannot simply be an exception line on row 6.
ELL supports
Provide the completed chain with three cells blanked instead of the full grid, and pair each role name with a small icon showing where that person works, such as a phone, a truck, a hydrant, or a laboratory bench. Allow short phrases rather than full sentences in every cell.
Extensions
Have students look up their own utility's published water quality report and find how it describes customer complaints and flushing, then compare that description with the fictional Harrowgale chain. Students can also role-play the sequence in six one-minute scenes, with each student speaking only as their assigned role, which makes the handoffs visible and shows how much of the work is passing accurate information to the next person.