Olivia Sousa was given an unassuming task as an intern for local nonprofit Green Newton: test all the outdoor public water fountains in Newton.
Sousa’s work would go to create a map that residents could use to track the best places to fill up reusable water bottles this summer, an initiative by Green Newton to dissuade the use of single-use plastic bottles.
Checking the 70-some fountains was a long process. Another intern, Theo Hofmann, took it on halfway through when Sousa’s internship ended in May.
At the end, Sousa and Hofmann confirmed what many Newton residents had already guessed.
Most of the outdoor, public water fountains in Newton don’t work.
“There were single-digit numbers of outdoor ones that we found to be working,” Hofman said.
The shut-off
And according to city officials, they haven’t for at least eight years.
In 2016, then-Mayor Setti Warren shut down the majority of outdoor fountains in the city after four of nine fountains tested were found to high have high levels of lead.
“In July 2016, the city shut down outdoor drinking fountains at 35 parks due to this screening that showed elevated lead levels,” Warren wrote in an email.
When the four fountains were first shut down, the city provided free bottled water at some of the sites, the email says. “The four fountains were shut off immediately and bottled water was provided at two locations with high tests, Crystal Lake and Gath Pool.”
Warren proposed a total of 14 new water fountain installations at “high-use sites,” in addition to sharing plans to reopen four newer water fountains at Newton North and one at Newton South.
These are the locations that were supposed to have new fountains, according to Warren’s correspondence with residents.
- Albemarle
- Auburndale Cove
- Cabot Park
- Forte Park
- Cold Springs Park
- Newton Centre Park
- Upper Falls (Braceland) Park
- Warren House Park
- Weeks Park
- Commonwealth Ave. Mall
The city had access to grant funding from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority designated for member communities to replace lead service lines. This funding would let Newton complete the water fountains project in the spring of 2017, according to the emails from Warren.
“A funding source has been identified so that the work could be done this spring,” Warren wrote. “The proposal includes time for community discussion.”
The filling stations of tomorrow
Today, the city maintains “a few” water fountains after the Warren administration halted them eight years ago, according to City of Newton Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Yeo.
“There are a few water fountains with running water that the city maintains, including one along Commonwealth Avenue (at statue on corner of Walnut St) and at the Newton South High School tennis courts,” Yeo wrote in an email to The Newton Beacon.
But the city government has turned away from outdoor, standalone fountains as a source of drinking water for the public, Yeo explained.
“The challenge with outdoor drinking water fountains is that the water becomes stagnant because they don’t get enough use to keep the water circulating within the system,” Yeo wrote.
Yeo said that the city is now focusing on creating water bottle filling stations at locations “associated with buildings,” places like playing fields, the Gath Pool and its bathhouse. “With so many people now carrying water bottles, we are moving away from this problematic model and adding water filling stations at key facilities around the City,” Yeo wrote. “The filling stations, associated with buildings, provide fresh water to users in a format more conducive to filling of personal water bottles.”
For Hofmann, a Newton native who now attends Emory University, the useless outdoor water fountains have simply become a fact of life.
“I remember being a kid and there not being not that many water fountains outside that I could use,” Hofmann said.
Sousa said she’s seen a demand for outdoor water fountains while working at the Farmers’ Market in Newton Highlands during the summer, both for people to get a quick sip on a hot day or to refill their reusable bottles that run dry after a long day outside.
“Working at the farmers’ market, people constantly go up to that water fountain at Cold Springs Park and try to turn it on, and it’s not on,” Sousa said.
Cold Springs Park was among the locations that was projected to have a new fountain by the spring of 2017.
According to Hofmann, useful water fountains are an important part of what Newton, as a thriving, suburban city, should be.
“It just seems very antithetical to what Newton wants to be, or how Newton wants to portray itself, that the water fountains wouldn’t be working,” Hofmann said. “I know in Wellesley, they definitely work.”