Bottled Water... Not so convenient

BOTTLED WATER

Bottled water has become rather controversial lately, for several reasons, so I thought we would take a look at it and understand the issues and what we can do about it.

First, let’s look at the water. In Brockville, as in all municipalities that operate water systems in Canada, the water piped to your home is very safe. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment has stringent regulations in place to see that it is clean and free of materials that may cause harm. These include e coli, which are the bacteria found in sewage and surface water, that can cause stomach upsets and more serious effects, solids which can affect taste and clog piping systems, and various organisms and particles that may cause health or taste issues. As well, there is a comprehensive list of organic compounds, many related to pesticides and fertilisers that are monitored and controlled. Testing is done frequently, on a directed schedule, to ensure the continued safety of the water. Your water may have a faint chlorine taste because a small chlorine excess will ensure that no harmful organism reappears in the water during distribution.

Bottled water in Eastern Canada comes from several sources, according to my unofficial survey. Feversham in Grey County is a common spring that is bottled, Aberfoyle near Guelph is widely bottled, and Hope Springs in B.C. is another. Bottled water comes under the jurisdiction of the Canada Food Inspection Agency, and stricter regulations are being considered by Health Canada, but are not yet in place. Water advertised as mineral or spring water may not be treated before bottling, but simple “bottled water” may be merely filtered or treated municipal tap water. Most brands will give a mineral analysis on the label and there is usually a small amount of carbonate, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulphate in the water, at parts per million levels. These are not harmful and impart some flavour to the water depending on their concentration. The water is not monitored for the wide range of compounds as tap water, perhaps because we have an idyllic view of a “spring” being naturally pure and uncontaminated. Ozone or ultra-violet light may be used to kill bacteria. Ozone, you may recall from a previous column, is a three-atom molecule of oxygen, and it has germicidal properties like chlorine, but with no aftertaste. So ozonated water may be perceived as more sterile than non-ozonated water.

Let’s take a look at the cost. Brockville City water costs about 0.06 cents per litre, based on an average family’s consumption. A 500 ml. (the common size) bottle would cost about 0.03 cents from your tap. So if you pay $1.00 in a vending machine, and you would be lucky to do so, you are paying over 3300 times the cost of the water, less the cost of the bottle. This is over twice the cost of gasoline, and we sure complain about that. Even when you buy a case at the supermarket, and you pay about 15 cents per bottle, you are still paying many hundreds of times the cost of the water. Heck, good rye whisky isn’t much more!

Now the bottle… water bottles are made of polyester, or PETE. This is the same polymer that is used to make videotapes and cotton/polyester clothing, among many other products. It is quite readily recycled, with the reservations I mentioned in a recent column. However only about a third of the water bottles end up in the blue box. Those that are recycled have been successfully turned into polar fleece and reusable shopping bags, and automotive and industrial carpet fibre is another promising outlet. The numbers of these bottles that are used is staggering, and most end up in litter and roadside trash.

There are a couple of other key points in this debate. A student who chooses a bottle of water over a bottle of pop in her school cafeteria has made a more healthful choice, but do we need “designer” water from Fiji, or from a rapidly-disappearing glacier? Sure, Perrier and Pellegrino and a few others have been around for quite a while, but they were originally conceived to be served at a table. We can easily purchase a more robust (polycarbonate or aluminium) water bottle, rinse and refill, and meet our needs for portable water. Careful cleaning is necessary, of course. Some municipal water does have a discernable taste which some may find unpleasant, but that can easily be removed with one of the readily-available filter systems that is effective, economical, and easy to maintain. Transporting all that water around the country burns prodigious amounts of diesel fuel, contributing to carbon dioxide and soot, and with water weighing one kg. /litre, in a legal truckload of about 38000 kgs. there is space left in the cargo area. According to both Health Canada and the bottled water manufacturers, the shelf life of sealed bottled water is two years if it is stored in a cool dark place.

The United Church of Canada and David Suzuki have both registered their opposition to the widespread use of bottled water, and conscientious consumers may wish to lower their use of bottled water and make choices with less environmental impact.