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GREEN GAZETTE

Water Wars:
Bottled or Tap?
Bottled water manufacturers' marketing cam- The Simple (and Cheaper) Solution
The next time you feel thirsty, forgo the botde and
paigns capitalize on isolated instances of turn on the tap. You'll lower your environmental
impact and save money—bottled water can cost
contaminated public drinking water sup- up to 10,000 times more per gallon than tap
water! And because the U.S. Environmental
plies by encouraging the perception y: Protection Agency's standards for tap water
are slightly more stringent than the U.S.
that their products are purer and safer v Food and Drug Administration's standards
for bottled water, you'll be drinking water
than tap water. tbat's just as safe as, or safer than, bottled.
If, however, you don't like the taste of
i your tap water or are unsure of its quality,
But the reality is that tap water is actually you can buy a filter pitcher or install an
held to more stringent quality standards M inexpensive faucet filter to remove trace
than hottk'd water, and some brands of \_^. chemicals and bacteria. If you will be away
bottled water arc just tap water in disguise. • from home, fill a reus-
What's more, our increasing consumption Is your bottled able bottle from your
of bottled water—more than 22 gallons M| water all that it tap and refill it along
pet U.S. citizen in 2004 according to the '^- claims to be? Most the way; travel bottles
Earth Policy Institute—fuels an unsus- B tap water is just as that have built-in fil-
tainable industry that takes a heavy toll on " good or better than ters also are available.
the environment. M t)ott)ed brands. (Bottles made of stain-
Environmental Impact less steel or plastics with
Fossil fiiel consumption. Approximately the numbers 2, 4 or 5 are best; check the
l.'i million gallons of oil—enough to run bottom of the bottle.—MOTHER) Finally,
100,(){)() cars for a whole year —are tised to limit your bottled water purchases for those
make plastic water bottles, while transport- * times when you're traveling in countries
ing these bottles burns thousands more ': where water quality is questionable.
gallons of oil. In addition, the burning of J Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit orga-
the oil and other fossil fuels (which also are niziition that recently launched the "Take
used to generate the energy that powers the 1^ * Back the Tap" campaign to get consumers
maniifiicturing process) emits global warm- to ditch botded water, points out that the
ing pollution into the atmosphere. federal share of funding for water systems has
Water consumption. The growth in bottled declined from 78 percent in 1973 to 3 percent
water production has increased water extraction today, Victoria Kaplan, senior organizer with the
in areas near bottling plants, in some cases leading to water organization, urges consumers to "support public policies that
shortages that affect nearby consumers and farmers. In addition promote safe, affordable, public tap watet for futtire genera-
to the millions of gallons of water used in the plastic-maidng tions." Visit www.joocLindu'iiteriviitch.orgOin(\ make the pledge
process, 2 gallons of water are wasted to take back the tap, promising to
in the sajiie piirifiaition processes for EPA—Ground Water and Drinking Watar. choose tap water over bottled when-
every gallon that goes into the bottles. www.epa.go\//safewater/faq/faq.html ever po.ssible and to support policies
Earth Policy institute—Bottled Water: Pouring that promote dean public tap water
Waste. Only about 10 percent of
Resources Down the Drain, Aww.earth-pohcy.org/ for everybody.
plastic water bottles are recycled, leav-
Upd3tes/2006/Uf}daie51.htm
ing the rest in landfills where it takes — Reprinted with permission from
CommonDreams.or2, www.commondreams.org/
thousands of years for the materials the nonprofit Union of Concerned
headhnesOSa 209-10. htm
to decompose. Scientists ('www.Licsusa.orgJ.

www.MinnER£ARiHNEWS.co« Februarv/March 2008 1 9