Writing prompt Grade 7 Health & Consumer Science
Tarnholm's Lead Service Line Fee: A Grade 7 Argument Prompt
Students argue for or against a monthly fee that would replace a fictional town's lead service lines in six years instead of ten, using evidence on lead and bills.
Objectives
- Students will state a claim about a proposed water bill fee and support it with three pieces of evidence.
- Students will state a counterclaim about affordability and answer it with a rebuttal.
- Students will explain why lead exposure is a health question and not only a money question.
Vocabulary
- Service line
- A service line is the small pipe that connects the water main under the street to the plumbing inside one home or building. It is the last leg of the trip water makes to your tap.
- Action level
- A trigger number in lead and copper testing. If too many homes test above this level, the utility must take steps like improving treatment and telling the public.
Also: counterclaim, rebuttal, burden
Teacher overview
Replacing lead service lines is a health decision and a money decision at the same time, and towns are making both right now under a federal rule that requires nearly all lead lines to come out within ten years. This prompt puts seventh graders inside that decision in the fictional town of Tarnholm, where the town must choose between two plans that both meet the deadline: a small monthly fee that finishes the work in six years, or no new fee and a state loan that finishes it in the tenth year. The background gives both sides real evidence, because rising water bills are a genuine hardship for some households and the loan has to be repaid later, so the counterclaim work expected at this grade rests on facts rather than on a token concession.
Prompt
Read the background, then write your essay.
Background: what is happening in Tarnholm
Tarnholm is a fictional town of 6,000 homes. About 1,900 of those homes still get their water through a lead service line, the pipe that runs from the water main in the street into the house. Lead can dissolve off the inside of that pipe and into the water a family drinks. Lead is most harmful to young children, and no amount of it is good for them.
Tarnholm is not unusual. About 4 million lead service lines are still in use across the country, by EPA's 2025 estimate, and EPA notes that lead in drinking water falls hardest on lower-income communities. A federal rule now requires water systems to replace nearly all of their lead lines within ten years.
Utilities must also watch a number called the action level. It is 15 parts per billion today, and it drops to 10 parts per billion in 2027. When the level drops, more homes will test above it, even though nothing in their pipes has changed.
The two plans. Tarnholm's water department has written two plans, and both would meet the ten-year federal deadline. Under Plan A, the town adds a fee of 6 dollars a month to every water bill, uses that money along with its current budget, and finishes all 1,900 replacements in 6 years, which is about 320 replacements a year. Under Plan B, there is no new fee. The town pays for the work from its current budget and a low-interest state loan, and it finishes in the tenth year, at about 190 replacements a year. Plan B has no spare time built in if the work falls behind. The loan must be paid back, with interest, through water bills after the work is done. Under either plan, homes still waiting for a new line get a free certified filter from the town, and each family has to change the filter cartridge on schedule until its turn comes.
The other side. Water and sewer bills across the country rose about 24 percent from 2019 to 2024, and about 5.1 percent more in 2025. That is faster than prices in general. A widely used rule of thumb, built from two EPA benchmarks, treats water and sewer costs above about 4.5 percent of a household's income as a high burden. Some Tarnholm residents rent their homes, and some live in houses that never had a lead line at all.
Your task. Write an argument essay for the Tarnholm Town Bulletin. Take a position on whether the town should add the 6 dollar monthly fee (Plan A) or do the work without it (Plan B). Your essay must include a clear claim, three reasons supported by evidence from the background, one counterclaim with your answer to it, and a conclusion. Write four to six paragraphs.
Planning Organizer
Fill in every row before you draft. Each row becomes part of your essay.
| Part of the essay | What I will write |
|---|---|
| My claim (should the town add the fee, yes or no) | |
| Reason 1 | |
| Evidence from the background for reason 1 | |
| Reason 2 | |
| Evidence from the background for reason 2 | |
| Reason 3 | |
| Evidence from the background for reason 3 | |
| Counterclaim (the strongest point on the other side) | |
| My rebuttal (why my claim still holds) | |
| Closing sentence |
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Exemplar & Rubric
Exemplar response
Tarnholm should add the 6 dollar monthly fee and finish replacing its lead service lines in six years instead of ten. The fee is small compared with the health risk, and the work has to be done either way.
My first reason is that lead is a health problem that cannot be managed around forever. Lead is most harmful to young children, and the only permanent fix is taking the pipe out of the ground. About 1,900 Tarnholm homes still have that pipe. A filter helps, but only if a family installs it correctly and changes the cartridge on schedule. Under Plan B, the last families on the list would depend on their filters for ten years, and under Plan A they would wait six. Four fewer years of relying on every household to manage a filter correctly is a real health gain.
My second reason is that Plan B leaves no room for problems. The federal rule says nearly all lead lines must be replaced within ten years, and Plan B finishes in the tenth year. If a hard winter or a shortage of work crews slows the job, Tarnholm could miss the deadline. Plan B is also not free. The state loan has to be paid back with interest through water bills later, so residents would still pay for the work, only later and with interest added.
My third reason is that the action level is dropping. The action level is the lead reading that requires a utility to act. It is 15 parts per billion today, and in 2027 it moves to 10 parts per billion. More Tarnholm homes will be over the action level in 2027 even though their pipes have not changed. Waiting does not make the problem smaller.
Some residents argue that the fee is unfair, and their point deserves an answer. Water and sewer bills rose about 24 percent from 2019 to 2024 and about 5.1 percent more in 2025, which is faster than prices in general. A widely used rule of thumb treats water and sewer costs above about 4.5 percent of household income as a high burden, and for a family already near that line, another 6 dollars a month is real money. Plan B would add nothing to bills now, while they are already rising quickly. Renters and owners of homes without lead lines would also pay the fee without getting a new pipe. That argument is strong enough that Tarnholm should pair the fee with a discount for households that qualify, so the burden does not fall hardest on the families who can least afford it. It is not strong enough to justify the slower plan. Everyone in town shares one water system, and the lead pipes belong to that system.
Tarnholm should approve the fee, add a discount program, and finish the job in six years.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim | No clear position, or the position shifts during the essay. | States a position but leaves it vague or restates the question. | States a clear position on the fee in the opening and holds it throughout. | States a clear position and previews the line of reasoning that will support it. |
| Evidence and reasoning | Uses no evidence from the background. | Uses one piece of evidence, or uses evidence without explaining it. | Uses three pieces of evidence from the background and explains how each supports a reason. | Uses three or more pieces of evidence, explains each, and shows how two of them connect. |
| Counterclaim and rebuttal | No counterclaim appears. | Names the other side in one sentence with no answer to it. | States the affordability counterclaim fairly with evidence and answers it directly. | States the counterclaim fairly, answers it, and concedes the part of it that holds. |
| Organization and conventions | Paragraphs are missing or ideas are out of order. | Some structure, with weak transitions and errors that slow the reader. | Four to six organized paragraphs, clear transitions, and few errors. | Purposeful organization, smooth transitions, and clean conventions throughout. |
Differentiation
Support
Give these students the organizer with the claim row offered as two checkboxes and one reason already filled in as a model. Provide the background split into five labeled chunks with a one-sentence summary under each, and allow a four-paragraph essay instead of six.
Extension
Ask students to write the town council's reply to their own essay, arguing the opposite position with the same background, then to mark which of their original reasons survived the reply. This sends students back through the evidence a second time, from the opposing view.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "service line," "action level," "counterclaim," and "burden" with a labeled drawing of a street, a main, and a pipe running into a house. Provide sentence frames for the counterclaim paragraph: "Some residents say ___. That point matters because ___. Even so, ___."
Extensions
Students can look up whether their own water system publishes a lead service line inventory, since systems are now required to keep one, and compare what it shows to the Tarnholm scenario. A short follow-up assignment asks them to write the two-sentence notice a utility would mail to a household whose line is scheduled for replacement next spring.