 Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon searched in vain for the fabled Fountain of Youth in what today is the Sunshine State: Florida. Now, millions of Americans buy water bottled or distributed here in pursuit of good health. Florida is “one of the top-consuming states for bottled water in the United States,” says Gary Hemphill, managing director of the Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC), a New York–based provider of beverage-related consulting, data, and financial services. Bova, a restaurant in Boca Raton, has a two-page water menu listing some 25 varieties at prices of $6.75 per liter and up. Florida connotes “ good weather, outdoor activities, and an active lifestyle,” says Hemphill. And consumers might reasonably expect water from the state to be more pure, safe, and healthful than that available from municipal sources. But is it? And is the environmental impact of disposing of millions of non-degradable water bottles worth the perceived benefit?
The Natural Resources News Service is examining the bottled water phenomenon from the perspectives of regulation, health and safety, and environmental impact nationally and, in this report, with an emphasis on Florida and the Southeast. A 1997 UN report concluded that bottled water has no nutritional advantage over tap water. Closer to home, a blind study of bottled and municipal water samples at the University of Central Florida’s Environmental Systems Engineering Institute found that both municipal and bottled waters meet state and federal water quality regulations. Two bottled waters tested had high bacterial counts. “On average,” says the UCF report, “bottled water samples had lower bacterial water quality and higher non-bacterial water quality than municipal water samples.” There is one significant difference between the two types of water. “Bottled water generally costs 10,000 times more than municipal water.” In fact, bottled water is big business. Forbes.com reported that “wholesale dollar sales for bottled water jumped from $10 billion in 2005 to more than $10.8 billion in 2006, an 8.5% increase,” based on statistics provided by BMC. “In 2006, bottled water per capita consumption hit 27.6 gallons, up from 25.4 gallons in 2005. And since 2003, bottled water . . . has been the second-largest commercial beverage category by volume in the U.S.” Florida’s tap water is regulated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as a utility. As a packaged food product, bottled water is regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only when it crosses state lines. But the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates that up to 70 percent of bottled water is a single-state operation and does not cross state lines, thus avoiding FDA scrutiny. Water bottled in Florida is regulated by the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That agency’s Division of Food Safety tests bottled water, inspects bottling plant sanitation, and ensures that bottled water comes from an “approved source.” Approved source in this case means that the company has approval to withdraw water, for example from a local water management district. “Depending on the water source, bottled water is not tested as frequently as tap water for regulated contaminants as set forth by the state and federal governments,” the Florida DEP advised in March, 2008. Nationally, NRDC has tested more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of bottled water with mixed results. NRDC found that “while most of the tested waters were found to be of high quality, some brands were contaminated: about one-third of the waters tested contained levels of contamination—including synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic—in at least one sample that exceeded allowable limits under either state or bottled water industry standards or guidelines.” NRDC found that “bottled water regulations are inadequate to assure consumers of either purity or safety, although both the federal government and the states have bottled water safety programs. At the national level, the Food and Drug Administration is responsible for bottled water safety, but the FDA’s rules completely exempt waters that are packaged and sold within the same state, which account for between 60 and 70 percent of all bottled water sold in the United States (roughly one out of five states don't regulate these waters either).” The FDA also exempts carbonated water and seltzer, and fewer than half of the states require carbonated waters to meet their own bottled water standards. NRDC’s report adds, “Even when bottled waters are covered by the FDA’s rules, they are subject to less rigorous testing and purity standards than those which apply to city tap water. . . . For example, bottled water is required to be tested less frequently than city tap water for bacteria and chemical contaminants. In addition, bottled water rules allow for some contamination by E. coli or fecal coliform (which indicate possible contamination with fecal matter), contrary to tap water rules, which prohibit any confirmed contamination with these bacteria. Similarly, there are no requirements for bottled water to be disinfected or tested for parasites such as cryptosporidium or giardia, unlike the rules for big city tap water systems that use surface water sources. This leaves open the possibility that some bottled water may present a health threat to people with weakened immune systems, such as the frail elderly, some infants, transplant or cancer patients, or people with HIV/AIDS.” Aqua Maestro, a Florida company that sells over 170 different bottled waters in all 50 states as well as several other countries, acknowledges on its own website—http://www.aquamaestro.com—that an absolute indicator of water quality is nitrate content. Nitrates leach into drinking water sources from nitrogen fertilizers, human waste and animal feces. The World Health Organization as well as US and state regulations recommend a maximum nitrate level no higher then 10 milligrams per liter (mg/l). Data released by Aqua Maestro shows nitrate levels of 16.0 mg/l in their Henniez water (from Switzerland); 26.5 mg/l in Hildon (England); 12.4 mg/l in Ludovicus (Slovak Republic) and 18.0 mg/l in Perrier water from France. The company reports that the nitrate content in their Trinity brand from US sources is “not available.” “Ironically, public concern about tap water quality is at least partly responsible for the growth in bottled water sales, which have tripled in the past 10 years,” the NRDC report continues. “This bonanza is also fueled by marketing designed to convince the public of bottled water’s purity and safety, marketing so successful that people spend from 240 to over 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than they typically do for tap water.” In fact, about one-fourth of bottled water is actually bottled tap water, according to government and industry estimates (some estimates go as high as 40 percent). Dasani brand, sold by Coca-Cola, is tap water from Jacksonville, Florida. Publix supermarkets sell water under its brand from two sources: municipal water supplies and well water from the Lakeland Industrial Center in Polk County, Florida. Winn-Dixie brand water is tap water from Plant City, Florida. Dickson Trust of Silver Springs, Florida, recently announced plans to bottle public water supplied by Silver Springs Regional Water and Sewer, Inc. “FDA rules allow bottlers to call their product ‘spring water’ even though it may be brought to the surface using a pumped well and may be treated with chemicals,” according to NRDC. “But the actual source of water is not always made clear—some bottled water marketing is misleading, implying the water comes from pristine sources when it does not. In 1995, the FDA issued labeling rules to prevent misleading claims, but while the rules do prohibit some of the most deceptive labeling practices, they have not eliminated the problem.” The Drinking Water Research Foundation (DWRF), a bottled water trade association, dismisses the report, saying, “The NRDC Report is plainly an effort to sensationalize a non-issue. The validity of the allegations against bottled water must be judged on the basis of its safety record, which is that bottled water must be considered one of the safest food products on the market today.” In a public statement, DWRF says, “The motivation for attacking an industry with an exemplary public health record remains a mystery. The only reasonable conclusion is that the NRDC Report is a solution in search of a problem and should be dismissed.” Nestlé Waters is owned by the largest food company in the world, Nestlé S.A. (previously known as Perrier Group of America). It sells 14 brands of U.S. bottled water, including Zephyrhills and Ice Mountain and owns approximately seventy-five spring sites in the U.S.A. The company fenced out the public to withdraw water from Crystal Spring, near Tampa, raising protests from activist groups such as Save Our Springs, as well as from the City of Tampa, which relies on the spring for its drinking water supply. The agency in charge of permitting water withdrawals in the region is the Southwest Florida Water Management District, widely known as “Swiftmud.” Ultimately, the source of most drinking water in north and central Florida is the Floridan Aquifer. The underground water supply is found throughout Florida and parts of Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Scientists consider groundwater a nonrenewable resource due to the long time it takes to naturally replenish an aquifer. Tom Ballestero, a civil engineer and hydrologist at the University of New Hampshire, is quoted in E, The Environmental Magazine as saying, “The groundwater they are pumping and exporting was going somewhere where it had an environmental benefit.” In a speech this year, Arthur von Wiesenberger, moderator and water master at the 2008 Berkeley Springs, California, International Water Tasting Seminar, quoted Barry Goldwater: “A man from the west will fight over three things: water, women and gold, and usually in that order.” Fighting over Earth’s most precious natural resource will continue in the West—and the East, North and South—as a limited supply is tapped by ever-increasing demands.
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