May 2009 Archives

The next time you see an abandoned bottle of water or (gasp) forget your refillable bottle and have to buy water in a pinch, peel off the label and save it. You can help the Environmental Working Group (EWG) research the truth behind water claims.

Tapitwater.com, designed by Media A and built by iCita, has won three Communicator Awards for web design: Award of Excellence (green/eco-friendly category), Award of Distinction (activism category) and Award of Distinction (community category).

When scientist set out to trace the origins of water pollution, they looked to a few candidates to track. Caffeine, pharmaceuticals (which I have written about in earlier Tap It entries) and compounds found in cosmetics were all considered. "Groundwater can be polluted by several sources, and it's sometimes not clear where that pollution comes from," said researcher, Dr Ignaz Buerge, an environmental chemist at the Swiss Federal Research Station in Schloss. But when it came time to decide, the journal of Environmental Science & Technology reports that they chose artificial sugar. 

"If I had to guess, these (artificial sweeteners, specifically saccharine and cyclamate) are the highest concentration of compounds that goes through sewage treatment plants without being degraded," said environmental chemist and Associate Professor at Stony Brook University, Bruce Brownwell.

This is major breakthrough for science, to be sure, however isn't it a little creepy to think that those same sweeteners go all through your body without being absorbed by your body?  In other words, how freaking synthetic is this stuff that your body can't even use the stuff for anything other than making your taste buds happy. Hmmm....

Speaking of making your taste buds happy, though, I personally like Crystal Light's Strawberry On-The-Go packets. They offer the perfect amount of flavor to a reusable water bottle's amount of tap water.

A recent article from the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted the fact that some restaurants are starting to charge for their own, in-house filtered tap water - some people are annoyed. On one hand, this concept can be very upsetting to customers who see it simply as a swindle. It can be quite frustrating to think that a simple glass of water during your meal, would get a dollar tacked on to your bill, as Millennium in San Francisco is now doing. On the other hand, if it became broadly acceptable for restaurants to filter their tap water in-house and charge for it (maybe a dollar is a little high), there would be a huge incentive in the restaurants to stop selling bottled water and invest in their own filtration systems. This would eliminate restaurant contribution to the major problems with bottled water: PET plastic and glass waste and the carbon footprint of shipping water long distances. With the overall benefits in mind, most likely many of us would be willing to pay a water surcharge. The end result would be customers getting better quality water, possibly better than many bottled waters, and a huge amount of waste would be averted.

Photo Credit: 'capspaulding' from Flickr

Perhaps you've heard a bit of talk regarding the role natural gas will play in transitioning our nation's energy in a more sustainable direction and thereby ridding us of our dependence on foreign oil. Most natural gas fans say it's a "bridge" fuel, it's domestically abundant, it's cheap, so we should give it the go-ahead as our breakthrough solution to oil.

Well, here's one major reason not too: our nation's water supply.

The process by which natural gas is extracted from deep within the earth is known hydraulic fracturing. Hydraulic fracturing consists of pumping a fluid with more than 245 chemicals, most of which are known carcinogens, down under the earth in high pressures to create fractures in gas-bearing rock. The drilling process was safely ushered past would be barriers like the "Safe Drinking Water Act," the "Clean Water Act," the "Right to Know Act," and the "Clean Air Act" in 2005 because it's Halliburton's drilling process, and of course Vice President, Dick Cheney was in charge back then.

But the process is far from risk-free. Studies have found that the toxins used in drilling seep into the water supply, and for that reason it must be studied further. 

Currently, Halliburton and Natural Gas proponents are looking to tap into the Marcellus Shale, a black shale formation extending deep underground from Ohio and West Virginia northeast into Pennsylvania and southern New York. Geologists estimate the Marcellus Shale contains between 168 trillion to 516 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. And to put this into context, says the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State uses about 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year. That's a lot of energy to be gained by drilling. But, more than 40 million citizens get their drinking water from the area in question and along with hydraulic fracturing, says organizations like NYH20, comes chemical seepage that would flow into our ground water. 

If you live in this area, or have a shale formation near you, this is an issue to keep your eye on in the near future. 

Photo courtesy of Save the Finger Lakes

The San Diego Regional Water Board unanimously agreed to give the go-ahead on the construction of a $320 million dollar desalination plant in Carlsbad, CA. The Water Board's approval gives Connecticut based Poseidon Resources the approval they need to build the facility, slated to open in 2012, which will convert 50 million gallons of ocean water a day into drinkable water. While conservation groups aren't so keen on the project, thinking of the disruption to surrounding ecosystems, Poseidon has promised to create 55.4 acres of new wetlands in Southern California to offset lost habitat.

Currently, the largest desalination plant in the US is the one in Tampa Bay, Florida, which began desalinating 25 million gallons per day in 2007. The Carlsbad desalination plant will double that amount and be the largest in the US, when it opens in 2012.

Photo courtesy of Green Office Projects

Bundanoon, a sleepy little tourist village in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia is making news in its attempt to go bottle free. The campaign is being run by local bike shop owner Huw Kingston in response to Norlex, who plans to pump 9 million gallons of Bundanoon's ground water per year and truck it to Sydney for bottling.

Kingston's plan urges local businesses to stop selling bottled water and replace it with a reusable 'Bundy on Tap' bottle for sale. Like TapIt, Kingston believes that businesses are the key as they have tap water readily available to fill reusable bottles.

Bundanoon has been fighting against the pumping of its spring water since 1994, arguing that pump sites are too close to heritage buildings and that 3000 truck movements per year through the center of town is dangerous for the tiny village where local children roam and tourists come for peace and quiet. But whenever the town celebrates a win in court, Norlex lodges an appeal or a new development application, prompting residents to ask, should there be a limit on the legal action a developer can take to defeat a community? 

Lets hope that Kingston can get local businesses involved in his campaign and drive home the message that in Bundanoon, community is king! And, if you're ever in the Southern Highlands, stop into Wild Horizons, Kingston's store and hire a mountain bike to take in some of the beautiful Highland trails.

Photo: www.highlandsnsw.com

TapIt is coming out for its second event of the summer in Union Square at 14th st., tomorrow, Saturday May the 23rd. TapIt is very excited to spend a beautiful, nearly summer day in Union Square.
 
TapIt will be providing plenty of information about the TapIt Network, a water bottle photo booth and plenty of engaging conversation from the TapIt team. Not only is Union Square one of the most lively places to be on a warm day, it is host to the Green Market, a wonderful array of local and organic foods from the Hudson Valley region. 

So come on by, get some vegetables and meet up with TapIt. A perfect Saturday afternoon (at least we think so). Our table will be near the Southwest corner of Union Square in between the market and subway entrance. You can take the L, N, R, Q, 4, 5 and 6 trains to Union Square. See you there!

From 1991 to 2001, overall prescriptions of antidepressants in the UK rose from nine million to 24 million a year. And now, 8 years later, that number is way up. Once the drug is ingested, it doesn't just disappear in the human body. Trace amounts of the antidepressant make into the sewage system, and some Brits fear, into the water supply.

An environmental spokesperson for the country's Liberal Democrats told The Guardian, "This looks like a case of hidden mass medication upon the unsuspecting public. It is alarming that there is no monitoring of levels of Prozac and other pharmacy residues in our drinking water."

Meanwhile, the British Environment Agency is still studying the matter to determine the precise quanitity of Prozac that is actually in the water. But if there is a significant Prozac presence in tap water in the UK, can you imagine our water's prozac content? There has already been reserach conducted in the US regarding trace amounts of synethetic hormones (like Birth Control pills) and Antibiotics in the water. Is the case for pharmaceutically contamintaed water strong enough to avoid tap water?  Probably not.  however, definitely something to stay up on.

Photo courtesy of Daphne Cuarana Galizia

 Sometimes you have to see it to believe it--that's how landscape artists Debra A. Ensteness and Sheila Hawthorne hope to convey their message at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. The duo's piece Take Back the Tap: Protect Our Environment is one of 10 installations in the Waterosity: Go Green with a Splash exhibit that opens on June 6. 

Nestle Waters has filed a legal challenge in federal court seeking to block the June 1 implementation of NY's Bigger Better Bottle Bill. Nestle argues that a provision requiring a New York state-specific UPC bar code on containers sold here, for which a nickel deposit is required, is unconstitutional.

The company is also critical of the state's plan to funnel unrefunded deposits to New York's general fund, rather than to support local curbside recycling programs.  You may recall that we wrote about the Bottle Bill expansion some time ago.  You can read more about Nestle's legal challenge here.

The newest attempt by the bottled water industry to address their eco-friendly customers comes in the form of the PlantBottle. This new bottle, which will initially be used for the Dasani brand, is produced from a mix of petroleum based plastics and up to 30% from plastics made from sugar and molasses. The Coca-Cola company hails their effort as a "a significant development in sustainable packaging innovation".

The US Senate is currently haggling over The Clean Water Restoration Act 787 introduced by Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, and man are some folks getting pissed. The bill essentially changes the term "navigable" in the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act and replaces it with "waters of the U.S." In doing so, the federal government would seize control over all bodies of water, man-made or natural, including water on private property. 

Opponents argue that this change in the Water Pollution Control Act goes against the 5th amendment, which prohibits, "private property from being taken for public use, without just compensation" and will interfere with individual state's water authorities. Moreover, they argue that the act will restrict aquatic activity on private property, begging the question, are these opponents avid skinny dippers? 

As a tap water fan, I've got to say that this is one strong piece of legislation. While opponents argue that it will, "fuel environmentalists and lawyers by generating endless litigation because every acre of land and water would be in dispute," I would offer that not only do we need jobs, which these environmentalist and lawyers can do to transition all this water from private to public property, but we also need to protect  bogs, wetlands, streams, ponds and any other body of water feeds into our drinking water supply. Eliminating industrial dumpers and water polluters is something the government has tried to do for years and with Act 787, they will be able to achieve that goal.

But as far as skinny dipping is concerned, I'm with the opposition: please don't restrict nudie swim time! 

Photo: Wikimedia

Spring is finally in full swing and TapIt is ready to have it's first summer event! 'It's My Park! Day' is an event held this Saturday, May 16th all over the city, every year, to celebrate your favorite parks in New York. We have decided to celebrate New York's great parks at McCarren Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with one of our founding cafe partners, Urban Rustic.

What if you walked into a grocery store or bodega today and didn't see a single bottle of water on the shelves? Hard to imagine these days, right? That scene could become a reality, on June 1 when the Bigger Better Bottle Bill goes into effect here in New York. Last month, Governor David Paterson signed the bill into law. It requires all bottled water sold in the state to collect a 5-cent deposit like other bottled beverages, which should boost recycling rates. Bottles must also have a new UPC label unique to NY and manufactures don't think they'll be able to meet the June 1 deadline. 

If the industry can't get the bar code on the bottle in time, stores won't stock water. It's that simple. So when you hit the corner deli on June 1, it might feel like you've stepped back in time to the early '80s--that was just before PET was created, providing the packaging that paved the way for bottled water to hit it big. Here's hoping we get to experience the '80s revival. We might even bust out our neon leggings and big hair to fill up our bottle at a Tap It location...maybe.

Photo by indesignguy from Flickr, used under Creative Commons Copyright.

The Bowery Poetry Club & Cafe, known for being one of the last vestiges of the fabled East Village arts scene, joined up with the TapIt Network this week. Although all their spirited poetry, jazz and cinema events typically take place at night, the daytime cafe is always a lively place to stop in for a refill on some great tasting tap water.

 Jessica Alba and Gwyneth Paltrow have teamed up with Johnson's No More Tears to raise money for the Clean Water Initiative, an organization that provides water, sanitation and hygiene solutions to babies and families in developing countries. While finding clean water is as easy as taking your reusable bottle to a Tap It location in NYC, that's obviously not the case everywhere. In fact, according to the United Nations four million babies worldwide don't make it to their first birthday, often because of preventable causes like lack of clean water. 

So these superstar moms donated goodies that are being auctioned off on eBay right now. You can get your pre-baby body back with Paltrow's personal trainer Tracy Anderson. And Alba has two strollers, a diaper bag packed with goodies and a bunch of baby girl clothing up for grabs.

Want to bid? You'll have to hurry, the auction ends Thursday, May 14. But if baby gear isn't your thing or celebrity eBay auctions are out of your budget, you can still do good by donating as little as $10 to the Clean Water Initiative. 

According to New York's Beverage Marketing Corporation, a leading research and consulting firm in the global beverage industry, 8.7 billion gallons of bottled water were sold in the U.S. in 2008. That's more than juice, sports drinks, energy drinks, tea and coffee combined.
At this rate of consumption, Lawrence's 1,466 students could fill an entire floor of Main Hall with about 10 inches of bottled water every year. If we then disposed of the 271,000 bottles in which the water would be packaged, we would create a floating mass of plastic 21 inches high across the whole surface of our new Main Hall lake. Lastly, about 10,600 gallons of oil would be required to produce the bottles and to ship them to us, adding 2.5 inches of oil to the lake.
Since we don't have to trudge through three feet of trash in Main Hall every year - or witness the disposal process of any of our trash for that matter - we often forget the many impacts of our consumption habits. And, of course, the vast majority of trash created has nothing to do with bottled water.
Last Saturday, at Greenfire's Earth Day celebration, a bottled water versus tap water taste test was put together by the student organization. Of the 43 participants, 27 identified the two water types correctly, and 16 identified them incorrectly. Only 11 people preferred the taste of the bottled water when asked before they knew the identities of the samples. While this was by no means an exhaustive study, it served as an effective consciousness-raiser for its participants.
The Natural Resources Defense Council recently found that about a quarter of all bottled water sold in the U.S. is in fact purified municipal water (i.e., tap water). Aquafina, Pepsi's bottled water brand, and Dasani, Coke's brand, are the two leading bottled water lines in the country, and both are packaged tap water.
Shortly after Coca-Cola launched Dasani in the U.K. in 2004, they recalled 500,000 bottles and pulled the brand from the country. Coca-Cola had been treating, then bottling tap water from southeast London and marketing it as "pure," when in fact their treatment process created bromate within the water, a possible carcinogen.

Wells voters will decide at a Saturday town meeting whether they want to join the communities of Shapleigh and Newfield in adopting the so-called "rights-based" ordinance that supporters say gives the environment more rights than corporations.  Listen here.

 Who doesn't love Vietnam.  From the spectacular Halong Bay in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south, Vietnam is full of fascinating sites and friendly, hospitable people.  But lets face it, if you don't want to spend your vacation in bed sick, you have to rely on bottled water in some Asian countries these days. 

Over the last few weeks I've been following stories about Vietnam's bottled water industry problems.  In recent years the bottled water industry has exploded in Ho Chi Minh City, where an estimated one thousand bottlers produce 400 brands of bottled water.  This has left regulators scrambling. 

In April, inspectors discovered that 150 out of 538 producers nationwide failed to meet production standards.  All bottled water companies are supposed to receive food safety and hygiene certificates in Vietnam but many don't follow regulations and the government doesn't have enough inspectors to catch them all.  Some bottling plants were found to be using drilled wells with untreated water and others were ignoring the bottle washing process. This is bad news for tourists, but worse news for Vietnamese citizens who increasingly rely on bottled water for drinking, due to pollution of both surface and groundwater sources by industrial effluents like ammonia.

"Consumers should... choose reliable brand names," Le Truong Giang of Ho Chi Minh City's health department told IRIN. "The only way to be truly safe," he added, "is to boil the bottled water, too."  The CDC has some ideas on how to ensure your water is safe to drink when traveling, but going for a high quality, well known brand is still your best bet.  Staying away from Vietnam is just not an option!

Photo Credit: Vietnam.com

Connecticut Muffin, a group of pleasant cafes located across Brooklyn, have joined the TapIt network this week. Besides having a variety of muffins, soups and sandwiches, Connecticut Muffin provides cozy couches and free Wi-Fi for customers. The new addition of great tasting filtered water refills makes a visit a must.

These days, selling bottled water is one tough gig.  Consumers are getting the message that purchasing water is a waste of money, generates tons of waste, and that high quality water flows for free out of their faucets.  What's a bottler to do to get cool again?

It seems that one bottled water company has a plan:  Aquafina Community Action. In an effort to stay current, Aquafina is demonstrating their commitment to "participation in volunteerism." Even keeping a running tally of the charity events they participate in, the tons of waste recycled, and the number of volunteers "hydrated."

For example, at last month's Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful event in Tampa, Florida, Aquafina provided bottled water to, "sustain the eco-volunteers as they work throughout the day's activities."  The event involved collecting trash to be recycled - mostly bottles and cans- throughout the county.  Volunteers were collecting empty water bottles, while guzzling water from plastic bottles - which then had to be recycled. Its like Phillip Morris sponsoring a cancer fun run and rewarding winners with a pack of Marlboros!

Producing bottles is resource and energy intensive, as is recycling, and the bottles still run the risk of being kicked to the curb to be picked up by next year's volunteers.  A smarter way to hydrate participants and drive home the eco message would be to provide water coolers with fresh, delicious tap water and remind each of the volunteers to bring their own bottle.  Now there's community action!

Photo Credit: Aquafina Community Action

The Cafe Habana and the Habana Outpost were founded and designed by artist Sean Meenan with sustainability in mind. The Habana Outpost in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn is literally a showcase of eco-friendly living. The whole place uses solar energy, they have bio-degradable plastic forks and knives, a solar cell phone recharging station and now they  are a TapIt location. Check out their other nifty eco features in the photo below.

Mother's Day is just around the corner and this year, my mum will be receiving gifts that are focused around an H2O theme.  Here are a few of the presents I'll be going with:

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Right to Water by Maude Barlow. 

Water bottle cleaning brush by SIGG.

Linda Loudermilk reclaimed sterling silver necklace (proceeds go to the UN's Water As A Human Right program.)

Rafter's Antiqua Shoes webbing made from PET recycled plastic bottles.

 


Keith Haring for SIGG water bottle

But this luxury may not always be as accessible, so use Drinking Water Week to improve your water conservation practices. AWWA says many experts predict at least 36 states will have to deal with water shortages in the next five years. According to the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, in 2006 the average New Yorker used 133.5 gallons of tap water a day for drinking and other everyday uses. Here, we have the largest unfiltered water supply in the world, thanks to the watershed and 1 billion gallons are delivered to New Yorkers every day! That's an amazing resource and one that's worth conserving. Try these five easy tips to get started then check out more water saving ideas from the the DEP and American Water & Energy Savers:

1. Turn the faucet off when you're not actively using water. Don't let the water run mindlessly while you're brushing your teeth, shaving, washing up around the kitchen, etc.

2. Fix leaky faucets and toilets whether you need to hunt down your landlord relentlessly or do the job yourself. The AWWA says dripping faucets can waste up to 2,000 gallons of water a year and leaky toilets can waste 200 gallons a day! 

3. Consider changing your faucets and shower head for lower-flow, water-efficient options that boast the EPA WaterSense label. 

4. Think before you flush your toilet and don't use it as a waste basket to toss and flush down tissues, bugs or other garbage. 

5. Don't let the water run when you hand-wash dishes, filling the sink with soapy water and rinsing under a slow stream from the faucet is more water-efficient. 

Bottled water purchases will be banned by state agencies under an executive order which will be signed today by Governor Patterson.  The ban applies only to agencies that sit within the executive branch and concerns only single serve water bottles.  Groups like Corporate Accountability International are gaining ground in their efforts to eliminate single serve plastic bottles across the US as states look for ways to cut their budgets, reduce their carbon footprint and show support for local water infrastructure.  Read more.

 Elizabeth Royte pointed out an article today by The Reformed Broker and Time Magazines's Curious Capitalist about Fiji Water's defensive public relations campaign.  Although Rob Six, (VEEP, Corporate Communications Fiji Water), went on a rant, I do have to agree with him on one point, as someone from a WAY south pacific Island (New Zealand). 'Fiji has the same rights as every other country to engage in global trade.'  Go Rob!  But does it have to be bottled water? How about Kava?

Photo Credit: The Reformed Broker; And, * What the heck is going troppo?

 Since the late 19th century when Danish Scientist Carl Lange tested the element on Manic patients, Lithium has been used to treat Depression, Bi-Polar disorder, and Trigeminal autonomic cephalgias "cluster headaches."  When used in small doses, Li acts as a mood stabilizer and increases the quality of life for many users.

Not surprisingly then are the recent findings that the trace levels of Lithium found in the drinking water in Oita, Japan -population 1 million- has resulted in lower suicide levels across the population.  The British Journal of Psychiatry has been conducting a study of the area's tap water since the mid 1980s and just released data that suggests the 0.7 to 59 micrograms of Lithium per liter of water has signficantly effected the community's emotional health.  And scientist are now exploring the idea of adding small amounts of Lithium to tap water. Tap water is so rad!

Photo courtesy of Ecologue.com

 Leave to the sensible folks (not you Norm!) from Minnesota to discontinue selling bottled water the right way - by providing a real alternative. The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum will soon discontinue sales of bottled water on its grounds and in its restaurants. Instead visitors will be offered a free compostable cup for filling with clean, filtered tap water widely available at the Arboretum. The gift store and  restaurant will sell inexpensive reusable plastic water bottles (for about the same price as a Dasani).  And of course, visitors will be encouraged to bring their own refillable water containers from home. 

We at TapIt don't believe in discontinuing bottled water sales anywhere without first providing a practical and easily accessible alternative.  Research is beginning to show that buyers may turn to sugary beverages which contribute to overweight in the absence of bottled water - children are particularly susceptible.  While we're all for reducing the waste from plastic bottles, we think a healthy population is equally important.  You can read more about the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum's program here.

Corn Planted by Western Scrub Jays on Flickr by Noel Zia Lee under Creative Commons License