By Megan Kelley

Review Writer

It’s all about reduce, reuse and recycle. Today, minimizing our carbon footprint has never been so easy and because of that, it is something Oakland County is looking to work toward.

In May of this year, the Oakland County board had allocated more than $500,000 to be used for purchasing and delivering (installation fees were left to the district) new water bottle filling stations to the county’s schools.

With Lake Orion receiving the most, a whopping 67 stations were installed.

Lake Orion schools have a large student population with Lake Orion High School being the largest high school in the county.

The water bottle filling stations that were installed during the summer months were placed in all existing drinking fountain locations.

No new fountains were placed in the schools; old fountains were simply upgraded through the county grant.

They will not only cut down on water and plastic bottle waste but every station will contain a filter certified by the Water Quality Association to NSF 42 and 53 to prevent chemicals like lead from polluting drinking water — and keep the water fresh through the filter’s lifespan.

Wes Goodman, executive director of operations at Lake Orion, says they are expecting an estimated potential savings of 96,000 water bottles each school year. This is a very significant increase in savings for the district.

Goodman also stated that earlier last week a teacher in the district had estimated that one of the stations near her classroom had already saved a full case of water.

These new additions to the schools are expected to be environmentally conscious and highly cost effective in the long run.