Lesson plan Grade 10 Social Studies & Civics
Who Regulates the Tap? Three Levels of Government and Safe Water
A grade 10 civics lesson in which students sort drinking-water responsibilities among the federal EPA, a state agency, and a local utility to map how oversight is shared.
Objectives
- Students will match specific drinking-water responsibilities to the federal, state, or local level that holds them.
- Students will explain why safe drinking water depends on all three levels of government working together.
- Students will compare how legal authority and funding responsibility are divided across the three levels.
Vocabulary
Key words: federalism, primacy, regulation, utility, oversight
Teacher overview
When a resident in the fictional town of Cedar Junction finds a boil-water notice on the door, it is not obvious who put it there or who is responsible for fixing the underlying problem. Drinking water in the United States is governed by three levels of government at once, and each level holds a different kind of authority. This lesson has students sort concrete responsibilities onto federal, state, and local mats, then compare how power and funding are divided. A common student misconception is that "the government" is a single actor; the sorting task is built to replace that idea with a clearer picture of shared, layered responsibility.
Procedure
Hook (5 min): Describe the Cedar Junction scenario: a resident finds a boil-water notice on the door. Ask students to write down, without discussion, which single office or agency they think is responsible for the town's tap water. Take a quick show of hands for "the city," "the state," and "the federal government," and record the split on the board without commenting on which is correct.
Framing the three levels (12 min): Explain the basic structure. The federal Environmental Protection Agency writes national standards and sets the legal limits that all public water systems must meet. Most states then apply to run the program themselves, an arrangement called primacy, and they inspect systems, issue permits, and enforce the rules day to day. The local utility or city actually treats the water, maintains the pipes, and sets rates. Note two facts that show why the funding question matters: the ASCE 2025 Infrastructure Report Card gave US drinking water a grade of C-, and EPA estimates about $625 billion in drinking-water investment is needed over 20 years, with distribution pipes accounting for roughly two-thirds of that need. Ask students to predict which level pays for most pipe repairs before moving on.
Sorting task (15 min): In groups of three or four, students receive 13 responsibility cards (for example, "sets the national limit for lead," "inspects the treatment plant on a regular schedule," "decides the monthly water rate," "replaces a broken water main," "certifies plant operators"). Groups place each card on the Federal, State, or Local mat and must agree on a reason before a card is set down. Circulate and ask groups to defend at least two placements aloud.
Compare and discuss (10 min): Reveal the intended placement for each card and have groups tally how many they matched. Lead a discussion on the cards that caused the most disagreement, drawing out that some responsibilities are shared rather than held by one level, and that a gap at any level can leave residents without safe water even when the other two levels do their part.
Exit ticket (8 min): Students answer two questions on a half sheet: which level of government they would contact first to change Cedar Junction's monthly water rate, and which level sets the legal limit that rate-funded treatment must meet. Collect the tickets. The class meets the objective if at least 80 percent correctly identify the local level for the rate and the federal level for the standard.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
Sorting task, intended placements:
- Federal: sets the national limit for lead; sets the national limit for other contaminants; approves each state's program.
- State: inspects the treatment plant on a regular schedule; issues the plant's operating permit; certifies plant operators; enforces the rules and issues violations; runs the state revolving loan fund.
- Local: decides the monthly water rate; treats the water; replaces a broken water main; reads customer meters; issues the local boil-water notice.
Cards that are legitimately shared (accept either level with a sound reason): "issues the boil-water notice" (a local utility issues it, but a state agency can order one) and "runs the loan fund" (federally funded, state-administered).
Exit ticket:
- Answer: The local level. The city council or the utility board sets the monthly water rate, so a resident would begin there, often at a public rate hearing.
- Answer: The federal level. The EPA sets the national legal limits that the locally funded treatment must meet, which the state then enforces.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a pre-sorted example (two cards already placed on each mat, with the reasons written out) so they begin the sort with a working model rather than a blank set. Reduce the deck from 13 cards to 11 by removing the two shared-responsibility cards.
Extension
Ask students to write a short paragraph proposing which single card they would move to a different level if they were redesigning the system, and to name one intended benefit and one likely unintended consequence of the change.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "federalism," "primacy," "regulation," "utility," and "oversight" with a simple three-column visual showing a national building, a state building, and a local water tower. Allow students to place cards and explain their reasoning with short phrases or by pointing to the matching column.