Newsletters: September - October 2007

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The Murky Waters of the Bottled Water Industry

Natural Times-September/October 2007

By Sandy Beck

We are working on shrinking our family's carbon footprint. We cranked up the thermostat this summer, buy locally grown produce whenever possible, carefully plan our errands to reduce fuel-consuming trips to town, and recycle everything we can.

Like others who shop at New Leaf Market, we are concerned about our health and try to make smart choices about what we put in our bodies, which is why we drink bottled water. Is there something wrong with this picture? I didn't think so. But lately, I'm not so sure.

This morning, I called Crystal Springs to ask where my bottled water comes from. Crystal Springs Natural Spring Water is pumped from Wekiva Spring in Levy County, Florida. A 6,000-gallon tanker truck delivers it to DS Waters of America in Atlanta, which bottles it and trucks it back to Florida. Another truck delivers eight, five-gallon, #1 plastic bottles to our door every month. With more than 250 bottled water companies in this country, bottled water is an 11 billion dollar per year industry. The average person drinks 28 gallons of bottled water every year. We throw away 30 billion empty water bottles per year, with four out of five ending up in landfills.

The Earth Policy Institute reports that it takes 1.5 million barrels of petroleum to make the water bottles that Americans use each year, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for one year. That 6,000-gallon tanker truck probably doesn't get very good mileage, so a lot more fossil fuel is burned transporting the water. I can see my carbon credits pouring down the drain now.

Pumping up huge quantities of water from springs also may disturb the natural balance of ecosystems and create water shortages in nearby communities. This has already happened in Texas and the Great Lakes region. Save Our Springs, a citizens' activist group concerned about Perrier's activities at Crystal Springs, cited decreased spring flow and reduced input to the Hillsborough River.

Lately, several large cities, troubled by the waste and pollution, have banned the use of taxpayer money to purchase bottled water: Ann Arbor, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Hooking up their water coolers to tap water will save the city of San Francisco a cool half million dollars each year.

Is bottled water any cleaner or safer than water from your tap? Cynthia Barnett, author of Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S., writes that Florida Trend magazine sent samples of tap water from Orlando and West Palm Beach with samples of three brands of bottled water produced in Florida to an independent lab. University of Florida environmental engineering professor David Mazyck interpreted the results.

"Both tap waters showed the presence of trihalomethanes, or THMs, a common by-product of drinking water disinfection linked to increased risk of cancer. In both cases, the THM levels were small-.020 milligrams per liter-a fraction of the EPA's maximum level allowable in drinking water-.080 milligrams per liter.

"The three bottled spring waters tested revealed no trace of THMs but were not free of disinfection by-product. One bottled water sample, Crystal Springs, contained the EPA's maximum allowable level of bromate, another disinfection by-product that is also linked to increased risk of cancer," Mazyck reported.

His conclusion is that neither tap nor bottled water is healthier than the other, but, he says, "EPA oversight of city water plants is more rigorous than the FDA's regulation of bottled water."

Not all bottled water is pumped from springs. A tiny "PWS" on the label stands for "public water source" -tap water that may or may not have been filtered. Aquafina and Dasani are two popular "PWS" bottled waters. Tallahassee's water supply comes from deep wells drilled into the Florida aquifer. The city water utility pumps water from the wells and adds chlorine and fluoride.

New Leaf Market sells Tallahassee tap water, purified by reverse osmosis. They also carry refillable bottles-number seven polycarbonate plastic and lightweight stainless steel.

According to New Leaf Market Merchandising Manager Chris Terrell, these plastic bottles may leach chemicals when heated. So, for hot tea or bottles left in hot cars, the stainless steel bottles may be best.

New Leaf Market also stocks some bottled water, however Terrell reports he is in the process of re-evaluating bottled water suppliers based on the energy required for transport.

Purified or filtered tap water and refillable bottles, with an emergency stash of bottled water for hurricane season, is my new plan. Already, I feel my carbon footprint shrinking a size.