Bottled water versus tap - Response to HPN Daily Update item

In response to the Los Angeles Times article "Bottled water versus tap: Which is safer to drink? " reprinted in your Daily Update newsletter, I respectfully ask you consider the following:

Dr. Janssen and the NRDC’s laudable agenda of improving public water systems is ill served by attacking the bottled water industry. The mantra of “tap water is just as good or better” - repeated often - will require return scrutiny of what we actually get out of the 55,000 different municipal systems in our country. Much of what is known is not all that pleasant.

I could begin to detail the low standards and lax regulation of tap water by the EPA instead of the more rigorous requirements imposed on bottled water by the FDA. I could cite the recent AP reports of pharmaceuticals in tap water or refer to the numerous and readily available violation reports in state and federal records. Or you could simply go the NRDC’s own website and find that they find municipal tap water not all that tasty. http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/uscities/contents.asp.

Let’s not try to further our own causes by tearing down others. We don’t really want to be party to the “negative sell” against tap water. It is not only distasteful but it doesn’t make common sense because growth of bottled water has not come at the expense of tap water. All industry statistics show bottled water has taken “share of stomach” from sugary carbonated soft drinks as Americans have become more health conscious in recent years. It is a good trend that should continue.

We do have real issues we could work together with current bottled water critics to solve. We need a serious program to recycle consumer packaging. Our bottles are a piece of the overall puzzle and we are willing to work clean up our own mess. My company currently is doing its own small part using 25% recycled content in both our glass and PET plastic bottles. We need to get all of this packaging back, though, along with all of the other packaging American consumers currently discard.

Oh, and that old saw of “water is more expensive than gasoline.” That changed long before the current run up in fuel prices. We’ll deliver five gallons to your home for $7.50 in a multi-use, returnable bottle. Try asking the local gas station to do that!

Breck Speed
Mountain Valley Spring Company
Chairman/CEO
Hot Springs, AR

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(Read JAMA article)

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