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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.
