Steve, don't you think our water was contaminated?

I always looked up to my big brother and constantly bombarded him with tough questions, because I knew he was always so much smarter than me. I think he tired of it at times.

I have several friends who drink bottled water and they do so for a variety of reasons. Some say that it tastes better and there is no way for me to dispute that argument. There are a few that drink it as a healthier alternative to other bottled drinks and I won't try to address that either. Yet still others say that it has a higher purity than tap water and with that point of contention, I have some disagreement. I have never been an alarmist, nor am I an advocate for the use of one source of water over another, but I do wish that my friends would better educate themselves on the purity standards of bottled water versus tap water. I really hate to see people paying more for water per volume than they do for gasoline, just because they think it is higher quality water.

I spent a period of time in my life working with water treatment in the oil fields of west Texas and later in the Midwest pulp and paper industry. By no means do I consider myself a water treatment expert, but I have tried to remain a little knowledgeable on the subject over the years. I do know that all of our water, whether it be bottled or tap, originates from similar places, which include sources such as lakes, rivers and underground aquifers. The taste and quality of any water depends on the source, the quality of the water at the source and the subsequent treatment of the water prior to consumption.

If we lived in a pure environment, that is, without the harmful effects from us humans, there is no doubt that our sources would be much cleaner. However, that is impossible, so we have to deal with our own self inflicted pollutants along with the naturally occurring (non-human initiated) contaminants. How do we treat these products that may be harmful to our bodies as a result of consumption? We treat them with various separation and degradation techniques that include both chemical and mechanical processes. These processes are really too numerous to mention in a short blog article such as this, but lets' just say that the capabilities to adequately treat water for consumption are available.

Now that we agree that treatment methods exist, we should look at how they are regulated and enforced. The EPA and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) have promulgated standards for public drinking water and they are the enforcement agencies. However, bottled water is regulated as a packaged food and must meet the requirements established by the Food and Drug Administration, if the water is sold across State lines. Water that is bottled and sold within one state is not regulated by the FDA; it is up to the individual States to regulate these processes and provide for enforcement.

If you want to know the quality of your tap water, you can request a copy of the test results, which are included in the supplier's annual report on water quality. If you are concerned about the quality of your bottled water, you can either trust the label on the bottle or contact the producer and ask how it is treated and to what standards.

Also while we are on the subject of bottled water, here are some notes from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC):

"The production of the plastic for water bottles produces large amounts of toxic chemicals, as well as about 800,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year (the amount produced by 8 power plants, or 140,000 cars), and most water bottles are never recycled (only about 13% of water bottles are recycled by being made into other materials)."

"U.S. consumers use 50 billion plastic water bottles every year; globally we use about 150 billion." Considering the previous statement and some simple Old Simmons mathematics, that would mean 43.5 billion plastic water bottles in the U.S. end up somewhere else, like landfills and along side our highways.

"It takes 26 times more water to make the plastic bottle than the bottle contains." I'm sure that the majority of that water is recycled, but I wonder at what cost to the consumer and to the environment.

Also, if you have time and are so inclined, you might want to visit this web site http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/bw... and read some more interesting information from a four year study of bottled water. There is even a summary in Spanish (en Espanol). Buena suerte.