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Debate kit Grade 8 Social Studies & Civics

Should Highmoor County Permit a Water Bottling Plant?

A two-session grade 8 debate kit on a groundwater withdrawal permit, with two-sided evidence, board roles, and a rubric for the county hearing students stage.

Objectives

  1. Students will build an argument for or against a groundwater permit using assigned evidence.
  2. Students will respond directly to the strongest point made by the opposing team.
  3. Students will explain which groups in the county gain and which bear the risk under the permit.

Vocabulary

Aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of rock, sand, or gravel that holds water in the tiny spaces between its grains. Wells reach down into aquifers to bring water up to the surface.
Drawdown
Drawdown is how far the water level in a well drops when a pump pulls water out. The harder and longer you pump, the bigger the drawdown gets.
Recharge
Recharge is water soaking down through the ground to refill an aquifer, the way rain refills an underground sponge. Aquifers stay healthy only if recharge keeps up with pumping.

Also: withdrawal permit, monitoring agreement

Teacher overview

This kit stages a county permit hearing rather than a general debate about bottled water. Two three-person teams argue the permit application, a five-member board panel questions them and votes, and a moderator keeps time. The question is genuinely contested because groundwater rules vary widely from state to state and often set few limits on how much a landowner may pump, so a county board weighing jobs against an unmeasured risk to neighboring wells is making a judgment rather than applying a rule. Teachers should expect students to arrive with strong opinions about bottled water as a product; the hearing is not about that, and redirecting students to the permit conditions in the evidence file is the main teaching move in session one.

Should Highmoor County Permit a Water Bottling Plant? — Grade 8 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Resolution & Background

Resolution: The Highmoor County Board should grant Northline Springs a permit to pump groundwater for a bottling plant at the Wrenlow Road site.

Highmoor County is a fictional rural county, and Northline Springs is a fictional company. The company has applied for a permit to pump 240,000 gallons of groundwater each day at a site on Wrenlow Road. The county board must approve or deny the permit at a public hearing.

The site sits above a sand and gravel aquifer. About 300 households near the site draw from that aquifer through private wells. The village of Stoneleigh draws from it through two municipal wells about 1.5 miles away. Farms in the county use it for irrigation. Under the county's rules, no permit is required for a private well or for farm irrigation, but a commercial withdrawal above a set size needs board approval.

Debate format and roles:

  • Affirmative team, three students. Argues for granting the permit. Opens for three minutes.
  • Negative team, three students. Argues for denying it. Opens for three minutes.
  • County board panel, five students. Asks each team two questions, then votes in public and gives a one-sentence reason for the vote.
  • Moderator, one student. Keeps time, calls on speakers, and stops any speaker who introduces evidence not in this file.

Round order: openings, three minutes each; evidence rounds, four minutes each; cross-examination, three minutes each; board questions, six minutes; closings, two minutes each; board vote and reasons.

Evidence File

Case for granting the permit

  1. Jobs and tax base. The fictional county planning staff report estimates the plant would add 45 full-time jobs and pay about $310,000 each year in property taxes, in a county that has lost two employers since 2019. Source: fictional Highmoor County planning staff report.
  2. The withdrawal is smaller than a town's. The company's application notes that per-person water use at home in the United States is commonly cited at 80 to 100 gallons per day, so 240,000 gallons per day is close to what the homes in a town of about 2,500 people use. Source: USGS Water Science School, cited in the fictional company's application.
  3. The aquifer has been stable. The county's hydrologist reports that water levels at the county's monitoring wells have held steady for 20 years, and that the sand plain above the aquifer lets rain and snowmelt soak in across a wide area. Source: fictional Highmoor County hydrologist's report.
  4. Monitoring is part of the offer. The company has offered to pay for water-level readings four times a year at 12 nearby wells and to stop pumping if levels fall below a trigger written into the permit. Source: fictional Northline Springs permit application.
  5. Construction work comes first. The building trades council states that construction would employ local workers for about two years, and that the county keeps the tax payments after the work ends. Source: fictional Highmoor County Building Trades Council statement.

Case against granting the permit

  1. Well owners carry the risk. About 300 households pump from the same aquifer, and the county's rules give them no protection if levels drop. Deepening a private well or drilling a new one is a large expense for a household. Source: fictional Highmoor County Well Owners Association testimony.
  2. Groundwater moves slowly. Water can spend centuries to millennia in deep groundwater, so an aquifer that is drawn down may take a very long time to recover. Source: USGS Water Science School.
  3. The permit has no dry-year limit. The staff report notes that the permit would run 25 years and would not reduce the allowed pumping rate during a drought, when farms and households need the aquifer most. Source: fictional Highmoor County planning staff report, section 4.
  4. The village has no backup. Stoneleigh's two wells sit about 1.5 miles from the site, and the village board states it has no funds to drill a replacement well if either one fails. Source: fictional Stoneleigh village board letter.
  5. Farms depend on the same water. County records show far more people work on farms than the plant would employ, and those farms irrigate from the same aquifer, so a risk to groundwater is a risk to the larger employer. Source: fictional Highmoor County agricultural statistics summary.

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

Rubric
Criterion Advanced Proficient Developing Emerging
Use of evidence Uses at least four points from the file, names each source, and explains why each one matters to the board's decision Uses three points from the file and names each source Uses two points, or uses points without naming sources Speaks without reference to the evidence file
Rebuttal Names the opposing team's strongest point and answers it directly with evidence Answers an opposing point with evidence Mentions an opposing point without answering it Ignores the opposing case
Understanding of the issue Distinguishes what the permit actually decides from broader opinions about bottled water Stays focused on the permit question Drifts between the permit and general opinions Argues about bottled water rather than the permit
Delivery and organization Keeps to time, speaks clearly, and organizes points in a stated order Keeps to time and organizes points Runs over or under time, or presents points in no clear order Does not complete the assigned round

Board panel members are scored on the questions they ask and the reason they give for their vote, using the same four levels: an advanced board question quotes a specific claim and asks the team to support it.

Differentiation

Support

Give these students a prepared card listing two evidence points from their assigned side, each with the source already named and a sentence frame for delivering it. Assign them the opening statement rather than cross-examination, since the opening can be rehearsed. Allow them to read from notes throughout.

Extension

Ask students to write the permit conditions they would attach if the board voted yes, such as a pumping limit in dry years or a fund for well replacement, and to explain which piece of evidence each condition answers.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "aquifer," "drawdown," "recharge," "permit," and "testimony" with a cross-section drawing showing a bottling well, a private well, and the water level between them. Provide a two-column note sheet with the phrases "Our side says" and "They say, and we answer," and allow extra preparation time before cross-examination.

Extensions

Students can research how their own state regulates large groundwater withdrawals, since the rules differ sharply from state to state, and write a paragraph on whether the fictional Highmoor County board would have the same authority where they live. A second option is to hold a second vote after students switch sides, then compare the two outcomes.