Sarah Tinsler drinks the water on campus — but not because she wants to.

She said she would rather drink the "tinny" water than pay for the bottled kind.

"I don't really have any other choice, and it sucks," the human biology sophomore said.

Although several students said the quality of water on campus needs improvement, Physical Plant officials said the campus tap water won't be changed only because of taste reasons.

"For me, I've grown up on well water, but you get someone who's grown up in Wayne County with surface water (that is) softened; they think well water is really different," said Bob Ellerhorst, director of Utilities and Waste Management. "It's because of what they are used to. The water is fine the way it is."

Assessments are done annually by the Physical Plant to test the safety and health of the water, but no tests are done to analyze the quality of taste, he said.

According to the 2004 Water Quality Report, all of the campus water meets Environmental Protection Agency and state health standards.

MSU's water comes from 17 groundwater wells, which connect with the Saginaw aquifer, a bed of sandstone that lies below most of central and lower Michigan.

The water comes from an unfiltered supply that isn't softened, Ellerhorst said.

He said the discoloration in the water comes when it stagnates in the Saginaw aquifer.

"It has a lot of iron oxides in it — that's part of the taste," Ellerhorst said. "Let the water run until it gets cool, then it's fresh, and it's fine."

Minimal traces of substances, including chromium, arsenic and fluoride, can be found in the water, according to the report's findings.

But these substances are not present in high enough concentrations to affect a person's health, said environmental engineering Professor Tom Voice.

For example, the report found two parts per billion of arsenic in the water. One part per billion equals roughly one drop of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Voice said risk assessments are done to determine drinking water standards, and the odds of a person getting cancerous effects from the water, assuming people drink two liters of water a day for their entire lives, are one in a million.

With any water sample, there will be chemicals present, he said.

"There's no such thing as zero," Voice said. "If you can name a chemical, you can find it in the water if you go low enough."

Many factors are taken into account when setting the safety standards, and at best, the standards are approximations for adequate levels of safety, he said.

Students' problems with the taste of campus water have been around for several years, and the issue was brought up again at the Nov. 30 meeting of the Residence Halls Association, when MSU Board of Trustees members Dorothy Gonzales and David Porteous addressed students' questions and concerns.

"I don't like well water at all," nursing freshman Brittany Karlon said Monday. "It tastes funny to me."

But some students are fine with the water, or choose to find other sources of drinking water.

"I usually just carry bottled water," professional writing senior Jessica Rachoza said. "I don't even think twice about it."

Trustee Melanie Foster said student representatives told her of the water quality problem at a meeting last winter, and she wants to continue discussing the issue at the board's finance committee meeting Thursday.

"From my standpoint, it's a concern, and as a member of the finance committee, I intend to seek more information on the matter," Foster said. "It's important that we provide quality water for students on campus."

Kristen Daum can be reached at daumkris@msu.edu.