Think bottled water is harmless?  Not so. 

by Jocelyne Rankin
 

Lots and lots of bottled water –inspected less frequently than your municipal water, with its packaging destined for down-cycling or worse. Photo courtesy of the Creative Commons.

Picture a seemingly innocent bottle of water. It looks pristine, healthy, even calorie-free – after all, it’s just water, right?  Not quite. 

First of all, bottling water takes a lot of energy. Pumping, transporting and refrigerating bottled water requires the equivalent fuel of filling each bottle ¼ of the way full with oil.  The plastic bottles also end up in our landfills, in the oceans and occasionally in recycling facilities where they are recycled or down-cycled – processes that are also very energy intensive. 

Federal drinking water regulation requires that tap water is tested throughout the whole process: at the source, at the plant and throughout distribution.  Testing happens as much as 10, 000 times per year or 100, 000 times per year for some cities.  However, bottled water is inspected much less frequently.  Moreover, unlike tap water, where you get an annual report with testing results, the public cannot find out what happened with bottled water inspections. 

It is important to find out if your tap water is safe, especially if your water comes from a well.  Potential contaminants could include pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, fertilizers or industrial chemicals. While no water is pure or pristine, when a utility has the resources to do its job, almost all microbial, inorganic and organic contaminants are removed from drinking water.  Proper maintenance of a private well is essential to protect your health.  This means protecting the area surrounding your well, regular testing of well water quality and treating your well when problems do occur.
Buying bottled water can also have serious public policy implications.  As people rely more on bottled water, the quality of public supplies may decline. After all, these public agencies need financial and political support.  People buying bottled water may be reluctant to agree to rate increases, watershed protection or pressuring elected leaders to improve water infrastructure.

Canadian cities such as London, Ontario and St. John’s, Newfoundland have stopped the sale of bottled water in municipal buildings and the Public Interest Research Group at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia has cancelled their water cooler contract, placing “bottled water-free zone” posters where the coolers once sat.  We can all take action and advocate for more public drinking water fountains by writing to our municipality, school or workplace.  And of course, we can all celebrate the gift of water with a bottoms-up from the tap!

Jocelyne Rankin is the Water Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) and Water Policy Fellow with the Gordon Foundation. Her hydrophilic nature has lead to her deep appreciation of all aquatic ecosystems. Coastlines is a project of the EAC, appearing in community papers around the province as well as at www.ecologyaction.ca/coastlines. Coastlines is supported by the Nova Scotia Habitat Conservation Fund with contributions from hunters and trappers.