Bottled Water II: The Baltimore-Washington Area

Infrared photographs of zone between Baltimore and Washington, DC 1973 and 2002 showing increase in urban development. Source: NASA Earth Observatory

Awhile ago I posted some comments on bottled water. When thinking about bottled water, we mostly think of the small bottles people who jog, bicycle, or want to appear addicted to exercise carry with them along with the multi-liter bottles on the refrigerator shelf. According to a television advertisement for Britta philtres, people in the United States annually empty enough of those bottles to encircle the earth 100 times. The costs in monetary terms and in environmental damage from consumption of that kind of bottled water are substantial, a topic we may examine in a little more detail at some later date.

Another kind of bottled water is known to people in urban areas where large (and mostly reusable) jugs of water are delivered to office and shop water coolers. That business, like the sale of smaller bottles, is huge as evidenced by a fawning piece in the pathetic business section of todays right-wing Washington Post (WP). The Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area is supplied by an oligopoly composed of two multi-national firms Crystal Springs and the Nestle owned Deer Park along with a much smaller local firm DrinkMore Water (also peddling small bottles with custom labels through its division called DrinkMore Custom Water). Those firms will deliver to private residences, but the bulk of their sales are to large customers in offices, retail establishments, and factories. The evidence in the piece published today by the WP is the market is growing.

The reasoning for having water delivered rather than using tap water for employee and customer drinking is complicated, but a simple analysis would suggest that it is almost never justified. By any measure, bottled water, even that in large jugs, is far costlier than water from the tap. Instead of fractions of a penny per liter, the bottled water costs 10 cents or more per liter, often substantially more. The cost is quite variable depending on how much water is delivered to a given location. For home delivered water at $7.50 per 19 liter container (5 gallons) advertised by DrinkMore Water in the DC area, the bottled water  is about 40 cents per liter. Fairfax Water tap water costs its residential customers between $1.94 and $2.08 for 3,785 liters (1,000 gallons) or about 0.55 cents per liter at the county water agency's highest rate.

The water delivered by the oligopolistic companies is generally safe water, at or below maximum acceptable levels of bacteria and other contaminants, but the water delivered by urban water supply systems through the taps also meets that requirement. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established maximum allowable levels for various contaminants, and it requires frequent testing of water by suppliers to ensure water is not contaminated beyond those levels. Advertising to the contrary, it is not at all clear that bottled water is any healthier or safer to drink than tap water, except in a very few special circumstances when local tap water is contaminated. In the end, taste is the primary selling point, and the companies argue their water has a better taste because of special filtration.

Recent postings have noted water supply issues in the Maryland area served by Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. At the moment there are no restrictions or advisories, but ones in the recent past have been alarming. In the District of Columbia, lead in the water remains an issue and will until a vast investment is made in replacement of aging pipes, though the use of orthophosphate and other treatment has reduced the levels of lead in almost all of the water to the EPA maximum or less. The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority offers lead testing for concerned customers with lead problems frequently occurring within private structures and not in the public water mains. The water in Fairfax County, Virginia the largest suburban jurisdiction, tastes foul to many of us, but it meets or exceeds EPA standards, and the foul taste can be removed using simple filters like those sold by Britta. Despite those reservations, all of the evidence suggests that there is really little reason for the vast majority of commercial sites in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area to depend on delivered bottled water. In addition to the monetary costs noted above, each of those oligopolistic companies selling bottled water has a fleet of trucks driving many kilometers each day in order to serve customers scattered over several thousand square kilometers of territory and contributes to environmental contamination in several other ways as well.

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Artesian Water

 1914 Label for Olympia Beer 

The beer was brewed until the 1980s in Tumwater, Washington (adjacent to Olympia) using artesian water, or so the brewery claimed. Today that beer brand is brewed in Southern California.

From the time I was a small child I remember people talking about artesian water, and until I was almost an adult I believed that it was somehow different from standard surface water or the water coming out of the tap. Advertising, including that for a popular brand of beer in the Puget Sound region, suggested that somehow artesian water tasted better or was more healthful. Based on marketing for Fiji water, a widely distributed brand of bottled water, that misconception persists.  In fact artesian is a description of the source and not of the water itself. Artesian water can be almost pure or nearly saturated with chemicals. Its primary trait is that it came from an underground aquifer where water is under pressure. When the aquifer comes to the surface a flowing or artesian well occurs. Many springs are of this sort.

A diagram of an artesian system where ground water is under pressure and rises to the surface when there is an opening. Source: http://www.littledippers.com/geocaching/ArtesianWell.jpg

Artesian wells are often a selling point for a property, especially a large property to be used for grazing where permanent surface water is distant or rare. In arid areas artesian seeps and wells are often the only source of water for many kilometers and thus are especially prized. In a later posting I plan to write a little about Australia's Great Artesian basin. The intense aridity of the outback would preclude almost all human use in many areas were it not for the water the artesian flow provides.

Artesian wells are but one aspect of ground water, a topic about which I shall have a great deal to say.

Bottled Water: I A Personal History: When it seemed a good idea

Antique Soda Siphons, Antiques Street Market, San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2008 © EOP

This is my week to be self-indulgent, so I thought I would take a few minutes to write about a subject that has become quite central to the discussion of water, bottled water. Peter Gleick's new book Bottled and Sold has generated a lot of buzz, as have various print and television advertisements - some of them promoting bottled water and others suggesting that it not be used. There is an online newsletter treating bottled water in somewhat the same fashion as wine, Bottled Water of the World. It would appear to have links to companies bottling water for sale and the publisher is FineWaters. The newsletter promotes the distinctive tastes of various waters bottled in countries around the world. On the other side various environmental groups have websites telling us it is best to drink tap water, for bottled water is horrifically expensive and environmentally destructive. Alternet Water is a good source of postings on the environmental problems of bottled water.

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest I was but vaguely aware of the existence of bottled water, encountering it only on vacation trips to Southern California. I was an adult travelling overseas when I first encountered widespread use of drinking water in bottles. The glass of tap water taken for granted in the US and Canada was not on offer in the restaurants of Continental Europe. One accompanied a meal with a purchased bottle, in my case usually con gas. When travelling in the poorer countries of Latin America and Asia bottled water was a necessity if one wanted to avoid cholera or similar water borne illness. In the mid-1970s  a cholera epidemic in Leningrad led to a US State Department recommendation to drink only bottled water, and I became accustomed to the rather foul taste of mineral water available in Soviet restaurants and hotels on a sojourn to attend a meeting in Moscow and Leningrad. Elsewhere bottled water generally tasted good, and drinking it seemed a small price to pay for avoiding disease.

For a number of years I thought little more of the issue and mostly drank tap water in the US and bottled water overseas, though I did become rather fond of carbonated water (I have never much liked soda pop) and bought it as a periodic treat, especially after prestige brands like Perrier became widely available. One summer we rented a farmhouse in the Cevennes not far from the Source Perrier, so we made a day trip, crossing the Canal du Rhône à Sèt adjacent to the Perrier bottling plant where we took a tour. The tour itself was a little strange, for it had a great deal to say about the manufacture of the bottles and the bottling process but said nothing whatsoever about Source Perrier, the fountain from which the special water is presumably drawn.

A few years later a brief period of residence in the Los Angeles area where the tap water is somewhat saline, or so it tasted to us, led us to join many Angelenos in mostly drinking bottled water and also using it for cooking. Then we moved back to the Pacific Northwest where tap water tasted good. Once again except on overseas trips we rarely drank bottled water with "fizzy water" as only an occasional treat. Abroad we were often thankful for bottled water in areas where the sanitary standards were questionable. An image remaining in my mind's eye is of porters carrying many bottles of water (and beer) on a trekking holiday in northern Thailand (that presents a bit of an ethical problem, but it was a long time ago).

The first awareness that bottled water was something more than an occasional luxury and a necessity in areas where tap water is unsafe or has an unpleasant taste came watching the film The Player where a comic theme is the lead character's obsession with bottled water. Shortly thereafter I became aware of people running and speed walking with bottles of water in hand and, using a word that irritates me like fingernails on a blackboard talking about "hydrating" themselves. Restaurants began to offer bottled waters, and all seemed well with the world. On a trip to Washington, DC before returning to live here again, we even noticed that some water fountains in the city had been turned off because tap water was declared unsafe, the problem was lead contamination ongoing to the present. Given that water in Fairfax County where we were condemned to live  tastes foul, I foresaw years of drinking bottled water. And bottled water was everywhere with whole sections of Costco and entire aisles of fancier grocery stores devoted to its sale.

What I failed to recognize was the long list of problems accompanying widespread consumption of bottled water. Fairfax water continues to be foul tasting, but we have deigned to drink it and use it in cooking. Why we have in a subsequent posting.