Reading passage Grade 7 English Language Arts
Recycled Water for the Fields: Irrigation at Rowan Ferry
A grade 7 informational passage about a fictional farm town's shift to recycled wastewater for crop irrigation during a drought, with citing-evidence questions.
Objectives
- Students will cite textual evidence to explain why and how a town shifted to recycled irrigation water.
- Students will determine the meaning of domain-specific vocabulary, such as withdrawal and purple pipe, from context.
- Students will make an inference about agricultural water use supported by evidence from the passage.
Vocabulary
- Recycled water
- Wastewater that has been cleaned and used again, often to water parks, golf courses, and crops instead of being thrown away. Purple pipes usually carry it.
- Purple pipe
- The purple-colored pipes that carry recycled water for watering lawns and other non-drinking uses. The color warns everyone that the water inside is not for drinking.
Also: irrigation, withdrawal
Teacher overview
This passage follows Rowan Ferry, a fictional farming valley, through a multi-year drought and the decision its water utility made to offer farmers recycled wastewater for irrigation instead of letting the reservoir run dry. It gives students a concrete, evidence-rich text for practicing RI.7.1, since the passage states some facts directly and leaves others, like why agricultural water use matters so much during a drought, for students to work out through inference.
Passage
Rowan Ferry sits in a farming valley. Hay, corn, and alfalfa have grown there for generations. For three years, rainfall in the valley dropped well below normal. The reservoir that supplied irrigation water dropped low. Farmers worried they would not have enough water to finish a crop through the summer.
Instead of waiting for the drought to end, the town's water utility offered farmers a different source: recycled water from Rowan Ferry's wastewater treatment plant.
Recycled water begins as wastewater. Wastewater is the water that goes down a drain, a toilet, or a factory pipe. Left untreated, wastewater carries bacteria and other germs that could make the people working in the fields sick. Rowan Ferry's treatment plant already cleaned this water before releasing it to the river. That is the same basic process every wastewater plant uses. To supply farms, the plant added one more step: extra filtration and disinfection. This treats the water to a standard safe for crops that people do not eat raw, such as hay and grain.
The recycled water travels to farm fields through purple pipe. Purple pipe is a nationwide color code. It marks a pipe as carrying recycled water instead of drinking water. The purple color warns anyone working near the pipe: this water is not for drinking, cooking, or swimming. It is still safe for the crops it irrigates. Farmers who joined the program kept using their normal irrigation equipment. Only the water source changed.
Agriculture uses more fresh water than any other activity in the world. Globally, agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals. That is more than industry and household use combined. This is one reason water planners study farm irrigation closely during a shortage. Even a small change in farm water use can matter a great deal during a drought.
Not every farmer in Rowan Ferry chose to switch. Some worried the recycled water might affect soil health over many years. It can carry more dissolved salts than river water. Others worried about cost. Connecting a field to the new purple pipe meant paying for new plumbing. The recycled water itself was priced lower than the reservoir water farmers had been buying. The utility responded with a cost-share program. It covered part of the connection expense. The utility also promised to test the recycled water and the soil every growing season. It shared the results with any farmer who asked.
By the third growing season, farmers who had switched reported good results. Their crops grew about as well as they had with reservoir water. The reservoir itself recovered somewhat faster, since it no longer supplied every farm in the valley. Rowan Ferry's water utility now talks with nearby towns about starting similar programs. It shares what worked and what did not.
Recycled water for irrigation does not solve every water shortage. It does not replace the need to conserve water or plan for drought in other ways. But for a farming town like Rowan Ferry, it kept fields productive during a stretch of dry years. No farmer had to leave land unplanted.
Questions
- According to the passage, why did Rowan Ferry's water utility begin offering recycled water to farmers?
- What extra step does the treatment plant add before sending water to farms? Compare it to the treatment the plant already used before releasing water to the river.
- What is "purple pipe"? Why does the passage say the color matters?
- Name two concerns some Rowan Ferry farmers had about switching to recycled water. Cite the text.
- Why might cutting farm water use matter more than cutting household water use during a drought? Use the passage to explain.
- What did the water utility do to address farmers' concerns about switching?
- In your own words, explain why the passage says recycled water "does not solve every water shortage." Use evidence from the last paragraph.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: A multi-year drought lowered the reservoir that supplied irrigation water, so the utility offered recycled wastewater as an additional source to keep farmers from running short of water for their crops.
- Answer: The plant added extra filtration and disinfection beyond its normal treatment, bringing the water to a standard safe for irrigating crops that people do not eat raw.
- Answer: Purple pipe is a nationwide color code marking a pipe as carrying recycled water instead of drinking water. The passage explains that the color warns people nearby that the water is not for drinking, cooking, or swimming.
- Answer: Any two of: worry that dissolved salts in recycled water could affect soil health over time; worry about the cost of connecting a field to the new purple pipe.
- Answer: Because agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals globally, according to the passage, even a small change in farm water use can affect the overall water supply more than a similar change in household use, which is a smaller share of total use.
- Answer: The utility offered a cost-share program covering part of the connection expense and committed to testing the recycled water and irrigated soil every growing season.
- Answer: Answers should note that recycled water does not solve every shortage and does not replace the need to conserve water or plan for drought in other ways. Strong answers may add, from paragraph 3, that it is treated only to a standard for crops people do not eat raw.
Differentiation
Support (below grade level)
Break the passage into its eight paragraphs on separate note cards, and have students summarize each paragraph in one sentence before answering the questions, so the citing-evidence work builds on a shorter chunk of text at a time.
Extension (above grade level)
Without any outside research, have students write a paragraph comparing the concerns raised by Rowan Ferry's farmers to a concern they think a nearby town's residents might raise about drinking recycled water instead of irrigation water, using only the passage and their own reasoning.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "recycled water," "purple pipe," "irrigation," and "withdrawal" with a labeled diagram showing water moving from a treatment plant through purple pipe to a field. Allow students to answer questions 1, 2, and 3 with short phrases instead of full sentences.