October 5, 2007

Tap Versus Bottled Water

The Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors passed a resolution promoting the economic and environmental benefits of tap water over bottled water and prohibiting the purchase of bottled water with district funds.

The district has also banned the sale of bottled water on district facilities. District employees will no longer be able to purchase bottled water from their cafeteria. While this may seem like an extreme measure to some, for the district, it’s the clear choice.

“We want to help educate the public that tap water is not only healthy and safe for them, but good for the environment,” said the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, Rosemary Kamei.

Tap water is, in fact, subjected to more rigorous testing and purity standards than bottled water. According to a four-year study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a third of the bottled water tested contained levels of contamination. A key NRDC finding is that bottled water regulations are inadequate to assure consumers of either purity or safety.

To ensure that the water supplied by the district is clean, safe and better tasting, the district has implemented an advanced technique for water purification known as ozonation. Ozone is the primary method of disinfection at the Santa Teresa and Penitencia water treatment plants. The district has plans to expand this treatment to the Rinconada Water Treatment Plant in the future.

Bottled water also has serious environmental problems associated with it. According to the Pacific Institute, more than 17 million barrels of oil were used to produce 31.2 billion liters of bottled water that Americans consumed in 2006. Bottling the water produced more than 25 million tons of the carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.