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Message in a bottle: despite the hype, bottled water is neither cleaner nor greener than tap water
E: The Environmental Magazine, Sept-Oct, 2003 by Brian Howard
A host of environmental groups are joining resource managers in the call for Americans to cut back on bottled water and instead look to tap systems to provide our daily needs. As the NRDC points out, incidents of chemical or microbial contamination in tap water are actually relatively rare. In a recent review of the nation's public drinking water infrastructure, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health concluded, "Reasonably reliable water is currently available to nearly all 270 million U.S. residents,"
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Writing in The Kansas Lifeline, Scott Hoober expresses frustration on the part of municipal water managers, who are increasingly shackled with negative reputations despite their actual accomplishments. Hoober advises managers sarcastically, "What are you waiting for? Turn a few valves, install a bottling plant and begin to make the big bucks. You could sell your water for half of what the other bottler down the road is charging and still make a bundle. With no meters or mains to maintain, no monthly billing, lower lab bills, why, you could afford a top-dollar advertising campaign telling folks bow much better your water is than the stuff that used to come out of the tap."
It's true that tap water does face numerous threats, including possible contamination from the potentially harmful byproducts of chlorination, the specter of pollution and a lack of adequate funding. Stresses from global warming, urban sprawl and population increase also must be factored in, as well as the looming threat of terrorism. The WWF argues that governments should locus their limited energies on repairing current tap water infrastructures and on protecting watersheds from harmful farm, industry and urban pollutants. Many public water supply advocates feel that tax dollars should be paying to deal with tap water's challenges. We certainly need to think twice before handing off the public water trust to private companies that put it in attractive bottles at a high price. CONTACT: International Bottled Water Association, (800)WATER-11, www.bottledwater.org; Natural Resources Defense Council, (212)727-2700, www.nrdc.org.
BRIAN HOWARD is managing editor of E and turns on the tap when he wants a glass of water.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Earth Action Network, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
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