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Quiz & test questions Grade 12 Social Studies & Civics

Who Regulates the Tap? A Grade 12 Water Federalism Assessment

A 40-point grade 12 assessment on drinking water federalism, state primacy, and household affordability, mixing multiple choice, short answer, and rate computation.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify which level of government sets, enforces, and pays for drinking water requirements.
  2. Students will compute a household affordability burden and compare it with a widely used high-burden threshold.
  3. Students will evaluate intended and unintended outcomes of a tightened lead standard for a small town.

Vocabulary

Maximum contaminant level (MCL)
A maximum contaminant level, or MCL, is the highest amount of a certain substance that federal rules allow in drinking water. Water systems test regularly to prove their water stays under each limit.
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: primacy, enforcement, affordability burden

Teacher overview

This 40-point assessment closes a unit on how drinking water is governed across levels of government, and it works as a full-period test or as the written half of a two-part exam. Eleven items mix multiple choice, short answer, and computation, with the quantitative items built around the fictional town of Orrell so that no real utility's figures are implied. Items 8 and 10 are the two five-point written items and are worth reading first when sorting papers, because they show whether students can separate the question of who decides from the question of what the rule requires.

Who Regulates the Tap? A Grade 12 Water Federalism Assessment — Grade 12 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Assessment

Items 4 through 7 and item 11 concern Orrell, a fictional town written for this assessment. Show your work on all computation items. Calculators are permitted.

  1. Which entity sets the enforceable national maximum contaminant levels for drinking water? (2 points)
    A) Each water utility's governing board
    B) The US Environmental Protection Agency
    C) County health departments
    D) The American Water Works Association

  2. In drinking water regulation, primacy means that: (2 points)
    A) a utility's claim to a river outranks other users' claims
    B) a state has been approved to run and enforce the federal drinking water program itself
    C) a treatment plant removes the most dangerous contaminant first
    D) the oldest water right in a basin controls during a shortage

  3. A state holding primacy may adopt a drinking water standard stricter than the federal standard, yet it may not adopt a weaker one. Explain why the federal standard operates as a floor rather than as a ceiling, and give one reason a state might choose to go beyond it. (4 points)

  4. Orrell's median household income is $52,000 per year, and the combined annual water and sewer bill for a median household is $2,700. What percent of median household income does the combined bill represent? Round to one decimal place. (4 points)

  5. A widely used rule of thumb, built from two EPA benchmarks, treats combined water and sewer costs above roughly 4.5 percent of household income as a high burden. Using your answer to item 4, state whether Orrell's median household is above or below that threshold, and by how many percentage points. (3 points)

  6. Orrell's council proposes raising the combined bill by 8 percent. What would the new annual combined bill be for a median household? (4 points)

  7. After that increase, what percent of Orrell's $52,000 median household income does the combined bill represent? Round to one decimal place. (3 points)

  8. Orrell's water contains lead above the federal action level, and its council is also debating a rate increase. Identify which body decides each of these two questions, and explain in three or four sentences why the two decisions sit at different levels of government. (5 points)

  9. Orrell exceeds a federal health-based standard. In a state that holds primacy, which entity normally takes the first formal enforcement action? (3 points)
    A) The EPA regional office
    B) The state drinking water agency
    C) The county commission
    D) A federal district court

  10. The lead action level is 15 ppb and drops to 10 ppb in 2027 under the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, which also require replacing nearly all lead service lines within ten years. Identify one intended outcome and one unintended outcome of that change for a small town such as Orrell, and explain each in one or two sentences. (5 points)

  11. Orrell has 3,400 connections and estimates its lead service line replacement project at $1.7 million. What is the project cost per connection? (5 points)

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key

  1. Answer: B, the US Environmental Protection Agency. EPA sets the national maximum contaminant levels under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The American Water Works Association publishes voluntary industry standards rather than enforceable limits, and utility boards and county health departments operate below the level where national limits are set.

  2. Answer: B, a state has been approved to run and enforce the federal drinking water program itself. Choices A and D describe water rights rather than water quality regulation, and choice C describes treatment sequence, not regulatory authority.

  3. Answer: The federal standard is a national minimum that every public water system must meet, and primacy is granted only when a state's program is at least as protective as the federal one, so a weaker state rule would forfeit that approval. Accept any sound reason for going further, such as a contaminant that is locally common, a source water vulnerable to a specific industry, or public pressure after a local incident.

  4. Answer: 5.2 percent of median household income. Dividing $2,700 by $52,000 gives 0.05192, which is 5.192 percent and rounds to 5.2 percent.

  5. Answer: 0.7 percentage points above the threshold. Orrell's median household is above the roughly 4.5 percent high-burden level, since 5.2 minus 4.5 equals 0.7.

  6. Answer: $2,916 per year. An 8 percent increase leaves the household paying 108 percent of the current bill, and $2,700 multiplied by 1.08 equals $2,916.

  7. Answer: 5.6 percent of median household income. Dividing $2,916 by $52,000 gives 0.056077, which rounds to 5.6 percent.

  8. Answer: The lead standard is set nationally by EPA and enforced by the state agency holding primacy, while the rate increase is decided locally by Orrell's council or utility board. Strong responses explain the reason for the split: a health standard protects people who cannot evaluate the risk themselves and should not vary with a town's budget, so it is set once for the whole country, while rates depend on local costs, local debt, and local judgment about what residents can pay, and the officials making that call answer to those residents.

  9. Answer: B, the state drinking water agency. Under primacy the state runs the program day to day and issues the first notices and orders, with the EPA regional office stepping in only if the state fails to act. A county commission has no drinking water enforcement role of this kind, and courts become involved after an agency action is contested or referred.

  10. Answer: Accept one sound outcome of each kind. Intended outcomes include lower lead exposure for children and the removal of lead service lines that would otherwise remain in the ground for decades. Unintended outcomes include the cost falling on a small ratepayer base, which raises bills in exactly the places least able to absorb them, a shortage of contractors and materials as many towns replace lines at once, or partial replacements and disruption that temporarily raise lead levels at the tap.

  11. Answer: $500 per connection. Dividing the fictional $1,700,000 project estimate by 3,400 connections gives $500 for each connection.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a one-page reference sheet listing the three governing levels with one function each, and give these students the division setup for the computation items already labeled, such as annual bill divided by annual income. Allow item 8 to be answered as a labeled two-column list before it is written as prose.

Extension

Ask students to add a paragraph to item 10 proposing one funding mechanism that would keep the replacement requirement in place without pushing the fictional town's burden higher, and to name which level of government would have to act.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "primacy," "action level," "enforcement," and "burden" with a simple three-tier diagram showing the national standard, the state program, and the local utility. Permit short-answer items to be answered in bullet points, and provide the frames "This decision belongs to ___ because ___" for item 8 and "One result the rule intended was ___" for item 10.