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August 23, 2007
Bottled vs. tap water debate filters down to the schools
Many love the bottle, others see glass half-full
By Stephanie Bertholdo
 Americans are bonkers over bottled water, so enamored with the stuff that they are willing to pay many times more than they do for tap water.
According to one estimate, if the cost of tap water equaled the cost of even the cheapest 5-gallon jug of water, a typical monthly water bill would run $9,000.
Americans reportedly spent more than $15 billion on bottled water last year. Many question whether the cost is worth it.
Cost is one thing, but Dave Moorman, a Las Virgenes Unified School Board of Education member, says there are other reasons why Americans should return to the tap for hydration.
Speaking at a recent school board meeting, Moorman said up to 3 gallons of water can become contaminated in the making of a typical bottle of drinking water. And just one in four empty water bottles is recycled, he said; the others end up in landfills.
Moorman pointed to a study on bottled water from the island of Fiji. While a factory on the island churns out more than 1 million bottles of the elite brand daily for the world's consumption, safe, reliable drinking water is elusive to more than half of the indigenous population.
But proponents of bottled water say the Fiji factory provides jobs to hundreds of workers at twice the minimum wage.
Since the bottled water craze took hold in the U.S., local water district officials have been hard-pressed to persuade their customers that water streaming out of the tap is equal in taste and cleanliness, yet cheaper than bottled water.
The International Bottled Water Association says their product is held to a higher standard than tap water, but critics disagree.
"Water from public water systems is safe and certainly meets all public health standards," said John Mundy, general manager of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. "There has been contamination in the past in bottled water. . . . There (have) been recalls in the past."
Water districts provide potable supplies to homes and are highly regulated government agencies, Mundy said.
"We don't believe our customers need to buy bottled water," he said. Tap water "tastes good and is certainly less expensive" than bottled water. He said plastic bottles also pose a danger to the environment because of "packaging issues."
According to the National Resource Defense Council, the jury is out on whether bottled water is cleaner or safer than tap water.
The council tested more than 100 brands of water and estimated that 25 percent or more of bottled water comes straight from the tap.
Still, those who drink bottled water swear by its taste and point to the healthful benefits.
Las Virgenes schools banned the sale of soda from kindergarten through eighth grade. It's still available for purchase at the high schools.
Tastes great, equally filling
Moorman proposes a "water taste challenge" to determine if anyone can actually tell the difference between cheap tap water and expensive bottled varieties.
Changing the perception of water fountains at school is an assignment Moorman hopes to pursue.
"Low pressure, perceived unsanitary conditions, lukewarm water, et cetera, all stand in the way of use," Moorman said.
Getting students to return to the water fountain will be an uphill battle for eco-minded administrators. Moorman said the bottling industry has created a "cultural bias" in favor of the product, helping to render public drinking fountains the villain of taste and health.
Among the myths that have evolved around bottled water is one claiming plastic containers can't be reused because of the threat of bacteria. Reused water bottles supposedly break down and allow carcinogens to leach into the new water poured into the bottle, but that hasn't been proven, according to www.snopes.com, a myth-debunking website.
The Container Recycling Institute cites other authorities who say traditional plastic bottles can take 1,000 years to degrade in a landfill.
Moorman said neighborhood water bottle refilling machines allow cooled, sanitary water to be poured into bottles already on hand.
Alternative plans
Moorman plans to research alternatives to bottled water on Las Virgenes campuses, including the installation of chilled-water fountains, bottle refill taps, inline filters and other innovative solutions.
He hopes to create several "green" initiatives in local schools. He acknowledged that, while most have implemented recycling programs and some conduct "eco assemblies," he said he'd like to "kick it up a notch."
His so-called "Green School Challenge" would reward schools and students for any water recycling efforts and creative solutions they come up with.
Board member Pat Schulz favors the recycling approach.
"I would wholeheartedly support increasing our recycling efforts; however, don't forget that we worked long and hard to get rid of having the kids drink sodas," Schulz said. "I'd much rather have them drinking a bottle of water than going back to that."
For Moorman, the issue runs deeper than an artesian well.
"It really speaks to our culture of conspicuous consumption," he said. "To me, this is an 'inconvenient truth' that most of us are very guilty of. We can't just think about our light bulbs and gas mileage; we have to consider the environmental impact of the choices we make and the products we use."
http://www.theacorn.com/news/2007/0823/Front_Page/003.html
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