USA Water Filter Blog

Concord, MA, has become the first municipality in the country to ban all sales of bottled water at a recent town meeting

“All these discarded bottles are damaging our planet,” said Jean Hill, “causing clumps of garbage in the oceans that hurt fish, and are creating more pollution on our streets. This is a great achievement to be the first in the country to do this. This is about addressing an injustice.”

Hill is an 82-year-old activist who has been working on this cause for years.

The bottled-water industry is a $10 billion one, and representatives were quick to react to the ban. Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association, told the Boston Globe:

http://www.examiner.com/x-15870-Populist-Examiner~y2010m5d5-Massachusetts-municipality-bans-bottledwater-sales

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The final event in the 12-year history of Citizens for Smart Growth will be a screening of the documentary film “Tapped.” The film will screen at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey on Thursday, April 22, at 6 p.m. Donations will be accepted.

“We want to recognize the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and wanted to show a good film,” said Nathan Welch, executive director of Citizens for Smart Growth. “‘Tapped’ is interesting because water is such a big issue. We have done things on water in the past and people talk about water rights, but we wanted to create a dialogue about how water relates to our everyday lives.”

“Tapped” explores the bottled water industry and its effect on people’s health, climate change, landfills, transportation, pollution and the country’s reliance on oil. In addition, a “town hall” dialogue about water issues in the Wood River Valley will follow the film with Tom Hellen speaking for the city of Hailey.

“We have research emphasizing how we live in a desert and how we forget that we depend on the snowpack melt for rivers, creeks and our aquifers,” Welch said. “Tom will talk about where the water in the city of Hailey comes from, how it is treated and the sewage treatment plant process as well as the effluent on the Big Wood River.”

http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005130989

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How can this be? Americans are no more eco-friendly today than they were a decade ago despite the efforts of the environmental movement which celebrates the 40th anniversary of Earth Day Thurday, according to a recentGallup poll.

The 90% who voluntarily recycle newspapers, glass, aluminum and motor oil also did so in 2000, reports the poll, taken last month of 1,014 adults.  Only 3%  more say they now buy a product because they think it’s better for the environment.

Also, the poll says Americans are no more likely now to engage in environmental activism than a decade ago.

“The entrenched nature of these findings suggests that those who seek to encourage even more environmentally friendly behaviors from the overall population have their work cut out for them, especially if the actions remain voluntary,”  the report says.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/04/poll-green-behaviors-in-us-not-growing/1

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Peterborough will phase in a ban on the sale of bottled water at municipal facilities over the next several years, city council decided Monday night.

It’s a way to promote the municipality’s clean, potable water and to show that the city cares about the environment, Coun. Dean Pappas said, adding that it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce plastic bottles for water in the United States each year.

“It’s a public service that’s being slowly privatized. What are we going to pay for next? Air?” Pappas said.

A Nestle Canada representative urged council to work with the company on recycling initiatives rather than banning the sale of bottled water in municipal facilities.

Bottled water is a convenient, healthy and safe choice for people that’s particularly helpful at a time when obesity is a societal problem, said John Challinor, Nestle Waters Canada director of corporate affairs.

“Almost 30% of Canadian children are overweight or obese,” he said, adding that people revert to less healthy alternatives if bottled water isn’t available or they don’t drink anything.

Challinor said 60% of Canadians drink bottled water every day and 70% of people drink tap water at home and bottled water out of their homes.

Most Canadians don’t have the discipline to switch to the use of a refillable container for water, Challinor said.

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2562733

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There’s hardly a restaurant in America now that doesn’t offer its customers bottled water. This is certainly true for Samford’s food court, as dozens of students bypass their kitchen sinks or local water fountains every day to purchase supposedly safe, premium drinking water.

But what are students really getting when they purchase bottled water? It’s certainly arguable whether bottled water really tastes better than tap water — a 2001 Yorkshire study featured in the Scientific American surveyed 2,800 people and found that 60 percent could not tell the difference between their tap water and bottled water.

Claims about the safety of tap water are also suspect. Most municipal water systems in the United States are under stricter quality standards than the companies who produce bottled water. For instance, the FDA tests bottled water plants only once weekly for certain types of bacteria, whereas large tap water plants are tested at least 100 times per month.

Students’ images of bottled water quality and safety seem to be shaped by the marketing efforts of large corporations who place images of fresh springs and other beautiful water sources on the labels, even though bottled water sometimes comes from the same sources as tap water.

http://media.www.samfordcrimson.com/media/storage/paper1166/news/2010/04/14/Opinion/Think.Before.You.Drink-3905445.shtml

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HALIFAX, N.S. — The Nova Scotia government is planning to ban bottled water in department offices, saying the move will divert plastic waste from landfills and help restore the image of municipal tap water.

Premier Darrell Dexter caught his own environment minister off guard with the sudden announcement, made during a speech before a convention of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Halifax on Monday.

The premier told the union activists his office has sent a memo to officials in the Environment Department telling them to create a plan to ban use of the bottles where potable water is available.

Dexter later repeated his statement to reporters.

“The long and the short of it is this: where there is potable water in departments we will no longer use or provide bottled water,” he said outside the legislature.

The premier said his office came up with the policy following a campaign by union and environmental groups calling for the bottled water ban.

“Bottled water generates tonnes of plastic that goes into the landfill. We want to stop doing that,” said Dexter.

“We also want to support the well-run municipal water systems that exist here in the province and make the point that you can get, for pennies a glass, some of the highest-quality and best-tasting water anywhere.”

The premier said the Environment Department will draft the details, including a check on where potable water supplies are available.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iVgK04OWaRXly2EH-D41_U_z7g-Q

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CONCORD — For years, Jean Hill has been reading about the environmental consequences of the countless plastic bottles filling landfills and polluting local waters. She has watched as other towns around the country have cut purchases of bottled water, which she views as a wasteful, environmentally damaging alternative to tap water.

This week, after lobbying neighbors and local officials for months, the 82-year-old activist persuaded them to take more drastic action than perhaps any other municipality in the country: At Town Meeting on Thursday, Concord residents voted to ban all sales of bottled water.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/05/01/concord_fires_first_shot_in_water_battle/

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A new report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF states that the world is on track to surpass the Millennium Development Goal for drinking water access, but will fall short by one billion people for sanitation if current trends continue; access to a water source does not imply a quality water source.

The Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2010 Update finds that 2.6 billion people, more than one-third of the world’s population, do not use improved sanitation. Progress has been made in northern Africa, southeast Asia and east Asia, but large parts of south Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa remain without proper toilet facilities.

In 2000 the United Nations set goals for increasing access to safe drinking water and basicsanitation among the world’s poorest people. Known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they created quantified targets for improving life for these people by 2015. The goals focused on poverty, health, hunger, education and gender equality, with the water andsanitation target aiming to half the number of people without access to safe drinking waterand basic sanitation. This goal uses 1990 as a baseline year for comparison.

According to the UN definition, improved sanitation ensures that people do not come in contact with faeces. Examples of such systems include flush and pour-flush toilets, ventilated pit latrines and composting toilets. According to the WHO/UNICEF report, open defecation (the most unsanitary behaviour) is declining.

http://www.environmental-expert.com/resultEachPressRelease.aspx?cid=35120&codi=161613

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When we think of forests, majestic trees, precious wildlife and clean, fresh air might come to mind. We probably don’t think about the water we drink. We should.

When you turn on your faucet this Arbor Day, take a moment and think about the important role trees play to make sure what comes out of the tap is healthy and clean.

Most people know that trees produce oxygen that we breathe and clean the air by acting as giant filters, removing harmful particles and pollutants. But you may not be aware that trees work just as hard to protect and purify our water sources, including those that provide drinking water for millions of Americans every day.

Trees improve water quality by slowing rain as it falls to the Earth, and helping it soak into the soil. They also prevent soil from eroding into our waterways, reduce storm water runoff, and lessen flood damage. They serve as natural filters to protect our streams, rivers and lakes.

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/trees-play-key-role-506626.html

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LISLE, Ill., April 29 /PRNewswire/ — Take five minutes and take the test next week to check out the quality of your water.  That is the advice of the Water Quality Association as National Drinking Water Week begins.

The federal government is calling on Americans to start the spring by learning how they can make sure they get the safest and cleanest possible water coming into their house.  This year, National Drinking Water Week takes place May 2-8.

WQA offers free online diagnosis tools that let consumers figure out what might be affecting the quality of their water.  They are available at wqa.org.  In the “Find a Water Professional” program, local certified professionals can be found for consultation.  There is also a “Diagnose Your Water” button that provides information on possible problems.

“We are learning more and more about what is in our water,” said Peter Censky, executive director of WQA.  ”By consulting a certified professional, consumers can be assured they are getting the best advice available.”

The New York Times has been writing an extensive series called “Toxic Waters,” highlighting the worsening water pollution in America.  The WQA Web site lists products that have been shown to be effective through independent testing at WQA’s laboratory for removing contaminants.  Less than two percent of all water consumed is ingested by humans, making these “point-of-use” systems the most cost-effective and environmentally-friendly approach.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/take-the-test-wqa-urges-for-national-drinking-water-week-92425529.html

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