Bottled water coming from drought-stricken Calif.
By Julia Lurie, Mother Jones
Bottled-water drinkers, we have a problem: There’s a good chance that your water comes from California, a state experiencing the third-driest year on record.
The details of where and how bottling companies get their water are often quite murky, but generally speaking, bottled water falls into two categories. The first is “spring water,” or groundwater that’s collected, according to the EPA, “at the point where water flows naturally to the earth’s surface or from a borehole that taps into the underground source.” About 55 percent of bottled water in the United States is spring water, including Crystal Geyser and Arrowhead.
The other 45 percent comes from the municipal water supply, meaning that companies, including Aquafina and Dasani, simply treat tap water—the same stuff that comes out of your faucet at home—and bottle it up. (Weird, right?)
But regardless of whether companies bottle from springs or the tap, lots of them are using water in exactly the areas that need it most right now.
Learning that the purified bottled water I often have to buy actually comes primarily from my own drought-stricken state is concerning and frustrating. Purified tap water from a reliably drought-free location would make much more sense, even if it has to be shipped to reach me.
For those who think bottled water is frivolous, please read on. I agree with you, but…
Access to purified bottled water is a medical necessity for folks who can’t drink fluoridated water. The forms of fluoride used in tap water make many people sick, including me. Reverse-osmosis is the only form of filtration that removes fluoride; it’s expensive, so restaurants don’t use it. It’s no big deal to fill a couple of reusable containers for outings, but it’s a different matter for extended trips away from home.
Reducing the market for bottled water is an extremely good idea, but eliminating purified bottled water from the market would be a catastrophe for me.