Quiz & test questions Grade 10 Social Studies & Civics
Water Governance and Utility Finance in Ingram: A Quiz
A grade 10 quiz on who acts when a city's water system fails, using the fictional city of Ingram to test governance, funding, and policy evaluation.
Objectives
- Students will identify which level of government performs each role in drinking water regulation.
- Students will calculate a replacement program's annual cost and its per-connection share.
- Students will evaluate a rate decision for intended and unintended outcomes.
Vocabulary
- Enterprise fund
- A separate money account a city keeps for its water system. Water bill payments go in, water system costs come out, and the money is not mixed with other city spending.
- Deferred maintenance
- Repair work that keeps getting put off to save money now. The longer it waits, the worse and more expensive the problems become.
- Rate case
- The public process a utility goes through to change what it charges for water. Officials review the utility's costs, and customers can speak up before new rates are approved.
Also: primacy, service connection
Teacher overview
This 30-minute quiz is worth 20 points and checks a unit on water governance and utility finance. It mixes three multiple-choice items, three short-answer items, and two computation items, all anchored in one scenario about the fictional city of Ingram, whose aging system forces its council into decisions about enforcement, money, and risk.
Assessment
Scenario: The fictional city of Ingram runs its own water utility as an enterprise fund. After a winter of repeated main breaks, the state drinking water agency has warned the city about its aging system, and the council is weighing a rate increase to fund a steady replacement program.
- (2 points) Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which body most often holds "primacy," meaning day-to-day authority to enforce drinking water standards for systems like Ingram's?
- A) The city council
- B) The state drinking water agency
- C) The federal courts
- D) The county health inspector
- (2 points) Ingram's utility is an enterprise fund. What does that mean for how the system is paid for?
- A) It is funded mainly by property taxes
- B) It is funded mainly by federal grants
- C) It is funded mainly by charges to the customers who use the water
- D) It is funded mainly by the state's general budget
- (2 points) Which outcome is the most likely unintended result of Ingram postponing main replacement for another decade?
- A) The pipes stop aging while the city waits
- B) Emergency breaks and repair costs increase as failures multiply
- C) The state lowers its standards for the city
- D) Household water use rises sharply
- (2 points) In one or two sentences, define deferred maintenance in your own words, using Ingram's mains as the example.
- (3 points) The council's stated goal for the rate increase is a reliable system. Name one intended outcome and one unintended outcome the council should weigh before voting.
- (3 points) Suppose Ingram plans to replace 3 miles of main each year at a cost of $1.2 million per mile. What is the program's annual cost in dollars?
- (3 points) Ingram's system has 18,000 service connections. Using your answer to item 6, what is the program's annual cost per connection, in dollars?
- (3 points) A council member proposes skipping the increase and paying for breaks as they happen. In two or three sentences, evaluate that proposal: state its short-term appeal and its most likely long-term consequence for Ingram's ratepayers.
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: B) The state drinking water agency. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, most states hold primacy, so the state agency, not the council or the courts, enforces standards day to day.
- Answer: C) It is funded mainly by charges to the customers who use the water. An enterprise fund runs on its own revenue from ratepayers rather than on general taxes.
- Answer: B) Emergency breaks and repair costs increase as failures multiply. Postponement does not stop aging, and emergency work typically costs more than planned replacement, which is the unintended consequence the item targets.
- Answer: Deferred maintenance is putting off repairs or replacement that a system already needs, as Ingram does when it leaves failing mains in the ground to avoid spending now. Any wording that captures postponing needed upkeep earns credit.
- Answer: Intended: reliable service and fewer breaks as old mains are replaced on schedule. Unintended: accept one reasonable answer, such as higher bills burdening low-income households, customers reducing use, or political backlash that stalls future projects.
- Answer: $3.6 million per year. 3 miles times $1.2 million per mile equals $3,600,000.
- Answer: $200 per connection per year. 3,600,000 divided by 18,000 equals 200.
- Answer: Accept an evaluation that names both sides, for example: the proposal's appeal is keeping bills unchanged now, which pleases voters; its likely consequence is paying more overall, since emergency repairs, outages, and street damage cost more than planned replacement, and the backlog keeps growing until a larger increase becomes unavoidable.
Differentiation
Support
Provide the computation setup for items 6 and 7 with labeled blanks, and allow a calculator. Offer a word bank containing "primacy," "enterprise fund," and "deferred maintenance" for the short-answer items.
Extension
After the quiz, have students draft the two sentences the council should publish explaining the rate increase to residents, requiring one number from items 6 or 7 and one governance term from the quiz.
ELL supports
Read the scenario aloud before starting, and pre-teach "connection," "main," and "rate" with a sketch of a street, a buried main, and house service lines. Allow items 4 and 8 to be answered with a printed sentence frame.