Being composed of 75 percent water, students will now benefit from fresh water after ASCC Senate passed legislation last month to approve $20, 000 for the installation of five hydration stations on campus.

ASCC President Miles Aiello said he was glad to see the senators approve the legislation.

“I feel very ecstatic for the community,” Aiello said. “[Students] will have accessibility to fresh water.”

He said water has always been available to students and the community, but that the cost to buy bottled water in the bookstore is overpriced. The Elbow Room charges extra for purchasing with a card and the water is too expensive.

“The areas where the stations will be placed are in high traffic areas, areas that are really used by students and those hydration stations will be really visible.”

Aiello added that Director of Facilities David Moore, has the funding in case the machinery breaks down and that the cosmetic appearance of the stations will be overseen by the recycling technicians on campus, wiping down graffiti or dirt from the stations.

Moore said, “[Facilities] assisted with some product identification and the students picked out the locations.”

He said the locations have been identified and now the project at hand is going out on the field and checking if the locations are appropriate.

“We need to make sure we ordered the right fountain to go in there, they are not all the same and you have to make sure your plumbing lines up,” Moore said.

He added that if there was a reason to use funding to repair any of the stations, the cost would not impact normal budget spending trends.

“It would be like any other mechanical piece on campus. [If it broke down] we would take care of it, funding should be rather minimal. We should be able to absorb it in our normal operations,” Moore said.

According to Moore, not only does the machine supply water to students, it also has a monitor that tracks how many bottles students are saving.

“In other words, every time someone fills up one of their refillable bottles, it tracks how many plastic bottles you have averted,” he said.

Senator Josephine Diaz had questions following up the proposal for the hydration stations.

She said, “It’s a lot of money that we could have pulled from somewhere else.

“My main concern was ‘do Facilities know how to look over them if they break down?’”

According to Diaz, the locations for the placement of the water stations were too vague.

“I’m happy to hear that the water is filtered. I know that was a major question if the water would be filtered by the stations,” she said.