Bottled vs. Tap water

On this blog entry: Learn the pros and cons of tap vs. bottled water.

Where does your home’s tap water come from? First off, WHOA! I am really surprised that Riverside met most of its water supply needs by utilizing

Groundwater sources located in the San Bernardino, Bunker Hill, and Riverside Basins!

Super cool!

“Additional water is purchased from the Western Municipal Water District (WMWD). WMWD is a customer of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) who obtains their water from Northern California Rivers and imports it via the State Water Project.” (riverside.gov)

Not all of it comes from our local sources but it is still impressive that the majority of it does even more reasons to pay attention to groundwater pollution.

What did you learn about the safety of your tap water? I remembered reading a while back that Riverside had some of the worst water in the nation, so I was surprised that our cities water assessment looked so nice. There are a lot of nitrates and some other nasty stuff but when you’re reading the public utilities water assessment you kind of get a warm and fuzzy that there are some really good things going on and everything looks really up to snuff. So I delved a little deeper and looked around the ole interwebz and found EWG’s (Environmental Working Group) website, the one that said such nasty things about our water.

You can see their nasty report here: http://www.ewg.org/tap-water/whatsinyourwater/CA/City-of-Riverside-Public-Utilities/3310031/

Seems we run over recommended guidelines for all kinds of gross chemicals:

Pollution Summary

30	Total Contaminants Detected (2004 - 2009) Aluminum, Barium (total), Chromium (total), Copper, Nitrate, Silver (total), Chromium (hexavalent), Vanadium, Simazine, Dibromomethane, Trichlorotrifluoroethane, Foaming agents (surfactants), Chloroform, Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), Combined Uranium (pCi/L), Arsenic (total), Lead (total), 1,2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP), Bromoform, Bromodichloromethane, Dibromochloromethane, Dichloromethane (methylene chloride), Trichloroethylene, Radon, Combined Uranium (mg/L), Combined Radium (-226 & -228), Radium-226, Radium-228, Alpha particle activity, Perchlorate
6	Agricultural Pollutants (pesticides, fertilizer, factory farms) Nitrate, Arsenic (total), Perchlorate, 1,2-Dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP), Foaming agents (surfactants), Simazine
8	Sprawl and Urban Pollutants (road runoff, lawn pesticides, human waste) Nitrate, Copper, Lead (total), Arsenic (total), Dichloromethane (methylene chloride), Foaming agents (surfactants), Silver (total), Trichlorotrifluoroethane
21	Industrial Pollutants Aluminum, Barium (total), Chromium (total), Nitrate, Silver (total), Chromium (hexavalent), Vanadium, Dibromomethane, Trichlorotrifluoroethane, Foaming agents (surfactants), Combined Uranium (pCi/L), Arsenic (total), Lead (total), Dichloromethane (methylene chloride), Trichloroethylene, Combined Uranium (mg/L), Combined Radium (-226 & -228), Radium-226, Radium-228, Alpha particle activity, Perchlorate
6	Water Treatment and Distribution Byproducts (pipes and fixtures, treatment chemicals and byproducts) Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), Chloroform, Bromodichloromethane, Dibromochloromethane, Bromoform, Dibromomethane
16	Naturally Occurring (naturally present but increased for lands denuded by sprawl, agriculture, or industrial development) Nitrate, Copper, Barium (total), Lead (total), Arsenic (total), Radium-228, Radium-226, Alpha particle activity, Combined Radium (-226 & -228), Combined Uranium (pCi/L), Chromium (total), Combined Uranium (mg/L), Aluminum, Radon, Chromium (hexavalent), Silver (total)
6	Unregulated Contaminants EPA has not established a maximum legal limit in tapwater for these contaminants Vanadium, Dibromomethane, Trichlorotrifluoroethane, Lead (total), Radon, Perchlorate

Ouch! This is the stuff that is more scrutinized than bottled water!? You see the FDA regulates bottled water, in some shady back door deal kind of way.

FDA regulates bottled water as a food. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) provides FDA with broad regulatory authority over food that is introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce. Under the FFDCA, manufacturers are responsible for producing safe, wholesome and truthfully labeled food products, including bottled water products. It is a violation of the law to introduce into interstate commerce adulterated or misbranded products that violate the various provisions of the FFDCA. (fda.gov)

You see, the FDA keeps an eye out to make sure the products are “Safe” but they don’t really do anything else. This allows the bottled water companies like Pepsi and Coke to go ahead and say it’s safe on the honor system, pump it into plastic bottles and sell it to you, the trusting consumer. The EPA regulates our tap water, and it is tested over and over again to make sure the contaminants found within are at safe drinking levels. Ill take the EPA’s testing over the word of Coca Cola any day.

In the USA, we hear about how bottled water is supposedly more convenient. But what are some of the concerns and drawbacks of bottled water?

Pollution and lots of it. The bottles have to be made, they are petroleum products. It takes a lot of oil to produce just one water bottle, along with all of the waste created during its manufacture. Also, where do those bottles go? According to the Container Recycling Institute, in the U. S., 144 billion bottles were wasted in 2005! That’s bottles that are not getting recycled, they are getting land filled and shipped overseas and ending up in the ocean, not good. It takes Approximately 18 million barrels of crude oil to replace these bottles! War for oil, for bottles of water? I don’t think so. Refill, re-use and recycle!