Water quality is prevalent in our everyday lives, but many of us have the privilege of not thinking about it very often. The quality of the water we consume can have major implications for our health. For example, overly elevated chlorine levels in water can cause respiratory issues as well as colorectal or bladder cancer while substandard levels can result in bacterial contamination. This demonstrates the importance of regular water quality testing, especially in a new recreational facility such as the Sonnentag Center. In the summer of 2025, we periodically measured turbidity, chlorine levels, pH, and coliform bacteria levels in the Sonnentag’s drinking fountains, whirlpool baths, and concessions ice. To obtain these measurements, we used pH strips, a pool chlorine testing kit, a HANNA turbidity meter, and a free/total chlorine meter. Since drinking water requires such a small chlorine content to be appropriately sanitized, many of our methods weren’t sensitive enough to measure this quantity consistently. This complication forced us to try several methods of recording chlorine content, and in the end we were able to conclude that the Sonnentag’s water quality did meet the standards of healthy drinking water per the guidelines provided by the WELL Certification framework.
