July 2009 Archives

Pennsylvania State regulators have denied a permit for a controversial bottled-water operation, saying the proposal would have a severe impact on local streams.

The plan by Cooper Springs Trout Hatchery to pump up to 108,000 gallons a day from a well near Shafer Run, (a tributary to Laurel Hill Creek), and sell it to unidentified bottling companies, spurred vehement opposition from local residents. Laurel Hill Creek watershed is already considered among the nations 10 most endangered watersheds and residents believed the well would seriously impact water supplies.

The state DEP agreed with them - much to their surprise. In fact, residents were so sure the ruling would go against them that they had taken the battle to Harrisburg; writing a long letter to top officials at the DEP asking them to take a closer look at the cumulative effect of water withdrawals in the Laurel Hill Creek watershed.

After reviewing studies, the DEP said that pumping would reduce stream flow by 40 percent and that it would be detrimental to the entire watershed. 

Cooper Springs can appeal the decision to the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board or apply for a new permit. However, DEP spokesperson Helen Humphreys said, "for the department to consider a future application, there would have to be some demonstration that it would not in the future impact Shafer Run."

So for those of you thinking that the good guys never win, you can chalk this one up!

 

A new report from the U.S Geological Survey says that future water supplies from the High Plains or Ogallala aquifer could be in jeopardy if large amounts of water are pumped out of it and if farmers continue using chemicals on the land above it.

The aquifer is the most heavily used groundwater resource in the United States, supplying water to Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. Most of the water is used for irrigation, but about 2 million people also depend on it for drinking water. 

Of particular concern to researchers is nitrate, which was found in high concentrations in about six percent of drinking water wells tested. Although nitrate is naturally occurring, it's also a byproduct of fertilizer and manure.

The vulnerability of the Ogallala aquifer is that its recharge rate is limited by a number of factors. The plains region is semi-arid with steady winds that quicken evaporation of surface water and rain. In some locations, the aquifer is overlain with a shallow layer of sedimentary rock that is almost impermeable. And, while recharge does occur through the high plains playa lakes, their destruction, caused by farmers and development, decreases the available recharge area.  All of these factors limit the amount of water able to recharge the aquifer from the land surface. 

While the water quality from the aquifer is currently very good, Jason Gurdak, lead author of the study, says that changes in how the water is used will need to be made if supplies are to last into the future.

Photo: USGS

Tappening, the anti-bottled water company, founded by PR guys Mark Dimassimo and Eric Yaverbaum, has started a new campaign that encourages us to make up lies about bottled water.

But don't we want people to know the truth about bottled water? That is exactly the point. Tappening wants to show that the bottled water industry is far from honest. "If bottled water companies can lie, we can too" says the campaign.

Bottled water companies have a reputation for using deceptive advertising with labels showing mountain streams or pristine waterfalls, while the water inside is just filtered municipal water. Labels rarely indicate the water's source.

At startalie.com, you can fight back with your own lies and spread them. A few minutes at the site and I learned that bottled water has more calories than chocolate, broke up Jon and Kate's Marraige and killed Michael Jackson. That's terrible!

Image credit: startalie.com

Trust the Italians to take back the tap in style. First, the Mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, asked Venetians and tourists to drink tap water with his 'Aqua Veritas' campaign. Now Milan's city council has teamed up with small towns in the Milan area to provide sparkling water on tap.

Italians are some of the biggest consumers of bottled water in Europe. The average Italian family spends between $350 - $700 dollars per year on still and sparkling water to cater to the tastes of family members and guests, according to The Christian Science Monitor.

That's changed since the economic slowdown. Many families stopped buying still bottled water to save money. But those who preferred sparkling had no choice - that is until the city council started providing sparkling water on tap.

Case dell'acqua, or "houses of water," are colorful, houselike buildings with two faucets pumping cool water on demand. One faucet provides regular tap water while the second pumps CO2 with the water like a soda fountain. The CO2 is stored in a cryogenic tank.

So, if you're traveling through Milan this summer, don't forget your reusable bottle. You'll be able to tell your friends that you drank 'bubbly,' courtesy of the Mayor of Milano!

Photo: Anna Momigliano

Another green(washing) bottled water? The latest asks consumers to "Stop pollution and join the recycle-lution" claiming their H2O is eco because it comes in biodegradable ENSO PET bottles. And it tries to lure drinkers with something extra: A mantra.

Aquamantra offers bottled water labeled with affirmations like: I am grateful, I am healthy, I am loved and I am lucky. It's a little unclear whether or not you really need your drink to help you focus on your self-worth, but even if you do, you don't need to buy bottled.

The Kor One Hydration Vessel has the same concept built into their BPA-free refillable bottle that you can take to any Tapit location for free water. You can write your own mantra (drink only tap, never give up, enjoy every day) on a token and attach it to the inside of the cap so you'll see it with every sip. And Kor will give 1% of their annual profit to important causes including ocean and watershed protection, the global water crisis and container recycling. This water bottle really is green.

Good Magazine has a nice little post which offers you an avenue to take some action on bottled water labeling. 

Back in early July when Congress was looking into new regulations for bottled water, they sent letters to thirteen bottled water companies asking them to disclose their water sources so that they could be more closely regulated. Nestle and Pepsi both disclose that Pur Life and Aquafina come from "public water sources" but Coke won't say where they source Dasani's water - everyone knows its municipal tap though.

They're asking you to help pressure Coke into disclosure with this auto email form from Corporate Accountability International. If you want to call, you can do that too.  Once you click 'send the form' a phone number and script pops up that tells you what to say - can't make it much easier than that!

Photo: 20080705a 067 by Kain Road Cul De Sac from Flickr under Creative Commons License

Want to read up on the quality of your tap water? Easy. By law, NYC and every local water utility must disclose the source and quality of water on their website. Funny thing is, so far, bottled water manufacturers have snuck under the regulation radar. So the Environmental Working Group (EWG) took a closer look.

In 18 months, EWG only found two bottled waters with sources and treatment methods listed on the label and more details provided on their websites. None of the top ten brands do the same, however. Only 18 percent of bottled waters reveal quality and contaminant testing results including the eight domestic Nestle waters surveyed. Bottom line: EWG thinks bottled water drinkers deserve better since they're paying 1900% more than they'd pay for tap. Ultimately, filtered tap water is their recommended drink of choice. We agree, of course.

The lack of regulation is beginning to gain some attention in Congress so better labels could be required in the future. But until water bottlers are forced to disclose quality and sources, it's just another reason for bottled drinkers to switch to tap. You can count on tap to be healthy and with a reusable water bottle and resources like Tapit's water refill finder, it can be convenient, too. 

Photo by darrylh via Flickr used under Creative Commons Copyright.

A bill was introduced in congress last week by a bipartisan coalition, called the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act, that would raise $10 billion a year to upgrade, protect and repair water and sewer infrastructure across the country.

The bill proposed taxes on companies that have a vested interest in the public water supply or sewer system to pay for part of the program. This would include companies that make soaps, detergents, cooking oils and of course bottled water.

Bottled water and other bottled beverage companies would face a tax of of 4 cents per container sold. Industry spokespeople argued against the bill, claiming that they would have to pass this tax on to the consumer, who would ultimately bare the burden of the program.

This is a slightly perplexing argument considering consumers already pay for their water systems through taxes. Beverage companies do not pay the same share of taxes even though they are some of the biggest consumers of public water and their very business models depend on the systems functioning.

Regardless of how it is funded, the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act is an important measure for maintaining our quality water systems as well as helping areas with poor water quality improve. It is no accident that the US enjoys some of the cleanest water in the world. We need to keep it that way.

A bill protecting U.S. drinking water systems from terrorist attack was introduced in the House of Representatives on Monday.

I know, it sounds weird.

But, the bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency to establish risk-based performance standards for community water systems serving more than 3,300 people and the largest drinking water utilities as well as environmental and labor groups support it.

It seems that drinking water facilities often store large amounts of chemicals for use in disinfecting our drinking water. If those chemicals were released or got into the wrong hands they could put workers, and those in neighboring communities at risk. Not to mention the water supply itself.

Among the security measures proposed are the development of plans to address vulnerabilities of covered water systems, processes to reduce the consequences of an act of terrorism and training of employees to enforce the security measures. But the one we like best. A switch to safer chemicals. What's not to like about that?

Photo: Water Supply by Recoverling under Creative Commons License

The Vancouver, BC Metro board of directors has approved an initiative, to provide "water wagons", or mobile stainless steel tanks of tap water at large public events in the area.

The water wagon, designed as a truck trailer, carries about 250 gallons of chilled water and has ten taps for refilling your water bottle on the sides. The trailer gets towed into events where people can refill their water bottles for free from these taps.

Some festival organizers are getting involved as well. The promoters of the Vancouver Folk Festival have purchased 1,000 reusable water bottles to give away to festival goers so they can use the wagons.

The wagons are manufactured in Toronto. Two of them have been in use in that area for some time and are apparently very popular. It would be great if more festival promoters and cities started using the water wagons for events. Despite the extra expense, the wagons could save on clean-up costs and maybe stop some unnecessary dehydration.

Matt Damon, in his continued efforts as a spokesmen and activist for clean water access, announced the launch of Water.org yesterday.

The organization was founded as a partnership between the directors of WaterPartners, H2O Africa and Damon, bringing together some of the most reputable water organizations and experts in the field under one roof. Their goal is to provide relief for the 890 million people who don't have access to safe drinking water, and 2.5 billion without access to clean sanitation, a formidable task.

Water.org plans to bring a new level of awareness to water issues worldwide by extensive outreach and advocacy. They also plan on pressing the water technology industry into finding new solutions to provide clean water and new models to fund the effort.

Water access in the developing world is an ever growing concern. According to the World Health Organization, 3.5 million people die every year from water related diseases. Hopefully this new organization will be able to bring the relief to the astonishing amount of people who don't have access to the water we often take for granted.

Two filmmakers have bottled contaminated water from Bopal, India to highlight the negligence of Dow Chemical, the company that is responsible for cleaning up the water. The Yes Men - Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno- have created "B'Eaupal" bottled water, which is a "new product - unpotable water - to publicise the fact that the disaster in Bhopal is continuing."

 It has been 25 years since the Union Carbide Chemical disaster in Bopal, India and since Dow purchased Union Carbide in 1989, Dow has yet to take resposibility for cleaning up the polluted water.  Yesterday, along with Survivors of Bopal, the British filmmakers took the B'Eaupal water to Dow's UK headquarters and staged a protest.

A while back, I wrote a post about Bundanoon, a small tourist town in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Australia that was attempting to become the first town in the world to ban the sale of bottled water. Well, they did it; Bundanoon is now the first town in the world to officially ban bottled water.

In a near unanimous vote, store owners voted to stop selling bottled water, despite the profits it makes them. Instead, they will sell reusable water bottles labeled 'Bundy on Tap' which visitors can fill from water fountains dotted throughout the town.

The campaign to ban the bottled started in 2007 in response to a proposal by Norlex Holdings to extract hundreds of thousands of gallons of water from a spring beneath the town, ship it to Sydney for bottling and bring it back to the town to sell.

Premier Nathan Rees of New South Wales showed support for the bottled water ban in Bundanoon by ordering the government's own ban on purchasing bottled water in all state departments and agencies, to be followed by a public awareness campaign against bottled water.

In the last few months, I've been emailing back and forth with Huw Kingston who lead the campaign in Bundanoon. After the news I wanted to check in with him. I got this reply; 'Its been pretty mad Kylie - I've done over 150 interviews worldwide, TV crews everywhere. Bigger than we ever thought. Probably biggest knock to BWI so far and we are obviously a target for some reaction from industry (started already'!)

I'm guessing we'll be hearing a lot more about this tiny town in the coming months.

Congress held a hearing on bottled water regulation this last Wednesday. Two reports were heard by members of congress. One was from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the other from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an advocacy organization.

Both reports found that tap water was tested more frequently than bottled water. The EPA, who regulates tap water, requires municipal sources to issue a detailed report every year. The FDA, who regulates bottled water does not have such requirements.

Furthermore, the GAO report found that the "FDA does not have the specific statutory authority to require bottlers to use certified laboratories for water quality tests or to report test results, even if violations of the standards are found."

Another issues brought up by the complaints was labeling. The EWG report found that less than 2% of bottled water in their studies sample, identified its source, testing or what possible contaminants it may have.

A spokesperson for the FDA said that the administration may have more authority to better regulate bottled water in the future under the the Food Safety Enhancement Act, which is still in committee.

More authority would grant the FDA the ability to require testing and labeling as recommended in the reports. But, they were somewhat doubtful they it would be an easy task with their current regulatory workload.

Composting toilets are being discovered my city managers and individuals alike as a great way to conserve water.

The composting toilet is a unique type of toilet that, without using water, composts human waste and eventually creates a fertilizer that can be used in your garden.

Cities such as Austin and Portland have approved them for use in residential housing. In New York, the Dutchess County Legislator is studying these toilets for use in buildings there. Some cities are using them in parks as well.
 
Toilets do use a lot of water. According to the Department of Energy, by flushing the toilet, the average American uses 7,665 gallons of water each year. That is how much water is conserved by one person using a composting toilet. An impressive number.

According to the blog, Green Inc., the composting toilet manufacturer, BioLet, grew by 80% last year. The concept is surely catching on. But it might be a long time before you see these devices everywhere. There are some downsides. They needed to be emptied every few months. This can be very unappealing to some. But if you are saving upwards of 10,000 gallons of water a year, it seems like a pretty good deal.

photo credit: Sun Mar

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport just set a cap on the price of 20-ounce water bottles. Due to the TSA liquid ban, many travelers feel trapped paying top prices for airport bottled water. Now water can't be sold for more than $2.25 at DFW, a pricey sip considering the drinking fountain is free!

Average bottled water prices at airports in other major cities aren't much better with Chicago at $2.18, Boston at $2.00, Newark at $1.99, Los Angeles at $1.84, Seattle at $1.79 and Washington Dulles at $1.76.

Even many faithful SIGG owners end up buying bottled water when they fly because there's a misconception that all water bottles will have to be tossed at security checkpoints. Funny thing is, as long as your reusable water bottle is empty, you're allowed to bring it through security. Even if you buy a plastic water bottle when you depart, you can save it for your return flight if you again, bring it through security empty. So there's no reason to waste money (or the earth's resources) on airport bottled water. Just as you choose tap water in NYC, you can choose tap when you travel. 

Photo: Pensive Bottled Water, Sarako from Flickr used under Creative Commons Copyright.

While many people think bottled water may be a healthy choice, the real reason they drink it is convenience, according to a new UK study published in the journal BMC Public Health.

The participants believe bottled water has some health benefits, but they couldn't quite put their finger on what those benefits might be and they weren't sure bottled was any better than tap. But convenience was a decision-making factor that was easy to identify.

When you're thirsty on the go, the common response is to buy bottled water at the local corner store. And people still seem to be buying even during tough economic times. But drinking tap can be just as convenient if you know where to find free water on the go--a task that's getting easier in New York City where you can fill up your reusable water bottle at TapIt locations. No matter where you are, if you carry a reusable bottle, you'll probably be able to find a drinking fountain or somewhere to fill it up.

Photo by Savethedave via Flickr used under Creative Commons Copyright.