It's a contamination issue: this antic could have very easily led to E. coli in a public water system, and a lot of people getting sick. At the least, this would result in a "do not use" situation while the system management flushed, disinfected and retested the system.
It's a basic lack of respect for others' property issue. It's a lack of parent-instilled discipline issue.
Water system facilities are a federally-protected critical infrastructure: any tampering or trespassing is a federal crime.
I worked for a State-level drinking water oversight agency. I have personal experience in helping a small water system deal with a water tower tampering issue, and the emergency response effort not just by the water system, but all levels of enforcement agencies up to and including the FBI. Even to the point of sending water samples for detailed testing to see if anything detectable was present. The water system management had to conduct more than a few flushes of the entire system (250,000 gallons in just the one water tower), and the entire customer base was in a "do not use for anything" situation for over a week. This led to the agency assisting with and enforcing the posting of the Federal warning signs on all water system facilities.
The water system should (and has an obligation to) press charges, and the Feds should indeed throw the book at them.
You would faint dead away with private wells here.
“entire customer base was in a “do not use for anything” situation”
I’m guessing your tank was contaminated with something worse then teen spirit.
Designate the water for sidewalk cleaning
Geez, what a drama queen. Do you think this type of water storage is new?
I’ll bet you’re a big hit at parties.