The Havenbrook Water Explainer: A Research Writing Project

Driving question. What does a Havenbrook household actually need to know about its water, and how do we say it in four pages?

The client. Havenbrook Municipal Water is a fictional utility serving a fictional town of about twenty-two thousand people. Its communications staff reports that almost no one reads the annual water quality report it mails each June. The fictional Havenbrook Public Library has offered a display case for one month. Your team is writing what goes in it.

The source packet. Every team works from the same four documents, printed below. Havenbrook, its utility, its staff, and every resident named in the packet are fictional, and the documents were written for this project. They are written the way real documents of their kind are written, and they are condensed so the packet fits on a few pages.

The outside source. Each team must also locate and use one source from outside the packet. Use your own state's drinking water program page, a federal drinking water page, or a published report from a professional association. Two real facts you may find useful are that the lead action level is 15 parts per billion, dropping to 10 parts per billion in 2027 under the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, and that the 2025 infrastructure report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers gave United States drinking water a grade of C minus. Cite the source you use, not this brief.

Constraints. Your explainer must fit on four pages and no more. It must answer at least five of the nine resident questions in Document 4, and it must say which document each answer came from. It must include a glossary of at least eight terms, each defined in one or two plain sentences. It must include one chart or diagram that you build from numbers in the packet, such as the main break counts or the replacement schedule in Document 2, or the bill comparison in Document 3. It must state at least one thing the utility does not know or cannot promise. It must avoid alarming language that the packet does not support, and it must avoid reassuring language the packet does not support either. Every term in the glossary must be used somewhere in the explainer.

The deliverable. Each team turns in the finished four-page explainer, a works cited page that does not count against the page limit, and a three-minute presentation to a panel acting as the library board. The panel will ask one question about a choice your team made, so be ready to explain what you cut and why.

Source packet

Document 1. Havenbrook Municipal Water, 2025 Water Quality Report (pages 2 and 3, condensed)

Covers water delivered from January through December 2025. Printed June 2026.

Where your water comes from. About 70 percent of Havenbrook's water comes from the Ashby River and is treated at the Ridgeline Treatment Plant, where it is filtered and disinfected. The other 30 percent comes from three wells on the north side of town. Well 3 supplies part of the water for neighborhoods north of Route 9.

How to read the table. The "limit" column shows the federal standard. A result can meet the standard and still be worth understanding, so read the notes below the table as well as the last column.

Substance (unit)	Limit	Havenbrook result	Range of samples	Met the standard?	Usual source
Turbidity, or cloudiness (NTU), river water only	At or below 0.3 NTU in at least 95 percent of samples each month, and never above 1 NTU	100 percent of samples at or below 0.3 NTU in every month	Highest single reading 0.21 NTU	Yes	Soil washed into the river
Chlorine (mg/L)	4.0 mg/L, judged as a yearly running average	Running average 1.1 mg/L	0.3 to 1.9 mg/L	Yes	Added at the plant and wells to kill germs
Lead (ppb), tested at 30 homes	Action level 15 ppb, compared with the 90th percentile result; health goal 0 ppb	90th percentile 11 ppb	Not detected to 24 ppb; 2 of 30 homes above 15 ppb	Yes	Lead service lines and older household plumbing
PFOA (ppt), Well 3 only	4.0 ppt, which water systems must meet by April 2029	Average 5.2 ppt	3.8 to 6.1 ppt	Not yet required	Firefighting foam and some manufacturing
PFOS (ppt), Well 3 only	4.0 ppt, which water systems must meet by April 2029	Average 2.6 ppt	1.9 to 3.3 ppt	Not yet required	Firefighting foam and some manufacturing

Units. NTU measures how cloudy water is. In drinking water, one mg/L is about one part per million. One ppb is one part per billion, and one ppt is one part per trillion. Neither PFOA nor PFOS was found in the river water or in Wells 1 and 2.

Note on lead. Lead does not come from the river or the wells. It enters water from lead service lines, which are the pipes connecting some older homes to the water main, and from older faucets and solder inside homes. Each round of testing checks 30 homes with a higher chance of having lead pipes. The results are ranked from lowest to highest, and the 90th percentile is the result that 90 percent of homes are at or below. The action level is not a health-based limit. It is the point at which a utility must take further steps, such as adjusting its treatment to make water less corrosive. The health goal for lead set by EPA is zero, because no level of lead is known to be safe.

A change is coming. Under federal rules finalized in 2024, the action level drops from 15 ppb to 10 ppb in 2027. Our 2025 result of 11 ppb would be above that lower level. We are reviewing our corrosion control treatment now. We cannot yet say whether the review will lead to a change in treatment, and we will report its findings in next year's report.

Is there a lead service line at your address? Our service line inventory lists 1,140 lines that are lead or galvanized steel that must be replaced, and 2,050 lines whose material we do not yet know. You can look up your address on our website or call customer service. Our plan for replacing these lines is in the capital plan.

If you are concerned about lead, use only cold water for drinking, cooking, and mixing baby formula. If the water has been sitting in your pipes for several hours, run the cold tap until it feels noticeably colder before you use it. Any household can request a free lead test kit by calling customer service.

Note on PFAS. PFOA and PFOS belong to a large group of manufactured chemicals called PFAS, which break down very slowly. In 2024 EPA set a limit of 4.0 ppt for each, which water systems must meet by April 2029. In May 2026 EPA proposed letting some systems apply for two more years. That proposal was not final when this report was printed, and Havenbrook does not plan to apply. We are designing treatment for Well 3 (see the capital plan). Until it is built, we are drawing less water from Well 3 and more from Wells 1 and 2.

Note on chlorine. Chlorine keeps water safe as it travels through the pipes. Some customers notice its smell, especially near the plant, in the early morning, or after a main break, when we raise the dose for a few days. Our results were well below the limit all year.

Document 2. Havenbrook Municipal Water, Five-Year Capital Plan, 2027 to 2031 (summary page)

Adopted by the Board of Water Commissioners. All costs are estimates in millions of dollars.

The system at a glance. Havenbrook has about 160 miles of water mains. About 38 miles were installed before 1960 and are cast iron, which becomes brittle with age. Main breaks recorded each year were 41 in 2021, 47 in 2022, 44 in 2023, 52 in 2024, and 58 in 2025.

Project	2027	2028	2029	2030	2031	Five-year total
Water main replacement (miles)	2.0	2.5	2.5	3.0	3.0	13.0
Water main replacement (cost)	$3.2	$4.0	$4.0	$4.8	$4.8	$20.8
Lead service lines replaced (number)	200	250	250	250	250	1,200
Lead service line replacement (cost)	$2.0	$2.5	$2.5	$2.5	$2.5	$12.0
Identifying unknown service line materials (cost)	$0.4	$0.4	$0.3	none	none	$1.1
Well 3 PFAS treatment (cost)	$0.6	$4.2	none	none	none	$4.8
Ridgeline plant filter repairs (cost)	none	none	$1.4	$1.2	none	$2.6
Storage tank repainting (cost)	none	none	none	none	$0.9	$0.9
Total cost for the year	$6.2	$11.1	$8.2	$8.5	$8.2	$42.2

How the plan will be paid for. A low-interest state loan provides $18.0 million, state and federal grants for lead line replacement provide $6.0 million, and water rates provide the remaining $18.2 million.

Notes on the plan:

• Mains are chosen for replacement by their age, material, and break history. The list of streets for each year is published every January, so this plan does not name streets.
• Federal rules adopted in 2024 require nearly all lead service lines to be replaced within 10 years. The utility replaces the whole line, including the part on private property, at no direct charge to the property owner. Lines found to be lead during the work on unknown materials will be added to the schedule, and lines not reached by 2031 will be carried into the next plan.
• Well 3 treatment will use granular activated carbon, a filter material that captures PFAS. Design takes place in 2027 and construction in 2028. If construction bids are higher than estimated or equipment arrives late, startup could move into 2029.
• At 2.0 to 3.0 miles a year, replacing all 38 miles of pre-1960 main will take longer than this five-year plan.

Document 3. Notice of Proposed Water Rate Change

Havenbrook Municipal Water. Mailed to all customers in September 2026.

The Board of Water Commissioners proposes new water rates beginning January 1, 2027. The board will hold a public hearing before it votes. Sewer charges are set by the Havenbrook County Sewer Authority and are not part of this notice.

Monthly bill for a typical home using 5,000 gallons	Current rate	Proposed rate
Base charge (the same every month)	$18.40	$20.00
Water use charge, per 1,000 gallons	$6.04	$6.60
Water use charge for 5,000 gallons	$30.20	$33.00
Total monthly bill	$48.60	$53.00

For a typical home, the bill would rise by $4.40 a month, or about 9 percent, which is $52.80 more over a year. Homes that use more water would see a larger increase, and homes that use less would see a smaller one.

Why the board is proposing an increase. Of the added money the new rates would bring in, about 62 percent would pay for the capital plan, including payments on the state loan; about 23 percent would cover higher costs for treatment chemicals and electricity; and about 15 percent would cover staff wages and benefits.

What comes next. The board expects to consider another increase for 2028 once construction bids for the Well 3 treatment project are opened. No decision about 2028 rates has been made, and the amount of any further increase is not known.

Help with your bill. Households that qualify for state home energy assistance may receive a 20 percent discount on the base charge through the Havenbrook Customer Assistance Program. Call customer service to apply.

Document 4. Public meeting on the proposed rate change: resident questions (transcript page)

Havenbrook Municipal Water, public information meeting held at the Havenbrook Public Library in October 2026. The chair announced that written answers would be posted after the meeting, so staff did not answer at the microphone.

Q1. Marisol Ortega, Fenner Street: "I have a three-month-old, and I mix her formula with tap water. The report says lead was found. Is it safe for me to keep doing that?"

Q2. Dale Whitcomb, Orchard Lane: "My house was built in 1948. How do I find out whether I have a lead pipe, and if I do, who pays to replace it?"

Q3. Priya Natarajan, Hollis Court: "What exactly is PFAS, and is it coming out of my tap? I live north of Route 9."

Q4. Gene Kowal, Birch Road: "How much is my bill going up, and why should I pay more when the report says the water already meets the standards?"

Q5. Ruth Abernathy, Mill Street: "Our block has had two main breaks since spring. Is Mill Street on the list to be replaced, and when?"

Q6. Tomas Reyes, Lake Drive: "Some mornings my water smells like a swimming pool. Is something wrong?"

Q7. Ann Liu, Ridge Avenue: "If we accept this increase, are rates going to go up again the year after?"

Q8. Carl Brandt, Depot Street: "Wouldn't it be simpler for all of us to switch to bottled water?"

Q9. Denise Moore, Fenner Street: "I live on a fixed income. Is there any help paying the bill?"

1. Session 1, question inventory. Read the packet as a team. Turn in one page listing the five resident questions from Document 4 that your explainer will answer, and, beside each one, the document or documents that hold the answer. Some questions can be answered only in part from the packet. Mark each of those, and note what the packet leaves out and what kind of outside source might fill the gap.
2. Session 2, annotated source list. Locate your outside source and turn in a source list with one sentence per source explaining what it contributes and one sentence explaining why it is reliable. Name the publisher of your outside source and the date it was last updated. Narrow or broaden your five questions if the packet turned out to be thinner or richer than you expected, and note any change you made.
3. Session 3, glossary and page map. Turn in the glossary of at least eight terms with plain definitions, plus a page map showing what goes on each of the four pages and roughly how much space each part gets. The page map must show where the chart or diagram will sit and name the packet table its numbers come from.
4. Session 4, full draft and peer review. Turn in a complete draft with the chart or diagram in place. Exchange drafts with another team, score the draft against the rubric, and write two specific revisions the other team should make. Turn in the reviewed draft with your two revisions named on it.
5. Session 5, final explainer and panel. Turn in the final four-page explainer and the works cited page, then present for three minutes to the library board panel and answer one question about a choice your team made.