When I search the Internet and read the available data on water, both tap and bottled, I get very upset. What upsets me is that there is a lot of difference between what we are told as consumers, and what's really going on.

Water processing is a science in its own right. Back before mankind got its hands on water treatment, all water came from glacial melting, rain or from head springs. All untouched natural resources. Pure, healthy and abundant.

So, what's your point, you might ask. The main point is this: our water is being "sanitized" to the extreme with chemicals. Many chemical engineers working in the water treatment industry claim that our water is "safe." But the definition of safe water is far from clear, in fact, it is up for interpretation.

At least two chemicals used in public water system treatments have been shown by scientists and researchers in laboratory studies to cause cancer: chlorine and fluoride. Unhealthy comes to mind.

Since 2004, testing by water utilities has found 315 pollutants in the tap water Americans drink, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) drinking water quality analysis of almost 20 million records obtained from state water officials.

More than half of the chemicals detected are not subject to health or safety regulations and can legally be present in any amount. The federal government does have health guidelines for others, but 49 of these contaminants have been found in one place or another at levels above those guidelines, polluting the tap water for 53.6 million Americans. The government has not set a single new drinking water standard since 2001.

Water utilities spend 19 times more on water treatment chemicals every year than the federal government invests in protecting lakes and rivers from pollution in the first place.

Based on these data, EWG believes the federal government has a responsibility to do a national assessment of drinking water quality. It should establish new safety standards, set priorities for pollution prevention projects, and tell consumers about the full range of pollutants in their water. Because it has not, EWG launched a 3-year project to create the largest drinking water quality database in existence. This user-friendly, interactive resource covers 48,000 communities in 45 states and the District of Columbia

Is Bottled Water Worth It?

To determine what’s in your tap water, visit your local water utility’s website. There you’ll find the source of your  tapwater  and any residual chemical pollutants after treatment. The law requires at least that much data on tapwater provided by water utilities. As well, many utilities volunteer their treatment methods, either at their website or at their plant offices. Even if they're too small to have a website, they mail out periodic water quality reports.

So, when you pay premium prices of up to 1900 times more for bottled water, you should expect more accountability. With rare exceptions, though, you get much less. Quite often, you get no data at all. Unless you count much-hyped advertising gimmicks like including “crisp,” pristine” or “essential” on the label.

In my opion, empty words means just that: Nothing. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Pure drinking water is all about the facts, which many bottled water producers seem to ignore. An 18-month Environmental Working Group study of bottled water labels and websites found that:

• Only 2 bottled waters disclose their water sources and treatment methods on their labels, and offer a recent water quality test report on their websites. The best performers are:
• Ozarka Drinking Water
• Penta Ultra-Purified Water

• Just 18% of bottled waters actually disclose quality reports with contaminant testing results. Among them, all 8 Nestlé domestic brands surveyed:
• Poland Spring
• Nestle Pure Life
• Arrowhead
• Calistoga
• Deer Park
• Ice Mountain
• Ozarka
• Zephyrhills

**Not one of the top 10 U.S. domestically produced bottled water brands' label contains specific water sources and treatment methods for all their products.

I personally suggest that you filter your tap water, as I do. You save money, filtered water is purer than tap water, and you become part of the solution for the glut of plastic bottles around the world.

You should also demand stronger federal standards for bottled water from your Congressional representatives. That leads to better enforcement of your consumer's right to know all about bottled water. You do have the right to know where it comes from, what’s been done to it, if anything, and what trace pollutants lurk inside.

Until the federal Food and Drug Administration cracks down on water bottlers, use EWG’s What’s in My Bottled Water guide to find brands with high scores for disclosing full water source, treatment and quality and that use advanced treatment methods to remove a broad range of pollutants.

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