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by Nancy Price
Hiking along in the woods these days, you rarely hear the old familiar “ping” of canteen and metal cup swinging against a backpack. Water in a plastic bottle, no matter the pretty scene on the label, just can’t compare to the welcome pleasure of scooping up in cupped hands fresh water from a clear mountain spring. This may mark my age and nostalgia for simpler times, but highlights, the fact that not so long ago we relied on tap water and drinking fountains.

How did this change come about and what are the consequences? Why should we be concerned, and why should we raise any questions about the 50-year contract Nestle Waters North America signed with McCloud Community Services District to build a 1-million-square-foot bottling plant at the foot of Mt. Shasta in McCloud using local spring water?

Formerly, a few European-brand waters in glass bottles were imported as a special item familiar to those who had traveled abroad. Then, in the 1980s, the bottled water giants Coca Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestle saw the marketing potential, and as the result of an intense and targeted ten-year-plus campaign to create the “bottled water lifestyle,” we can’t seem to do without bottled water, either store-bought or delivered at home or office.

The trade now in bottled water world-wide is one of the fastest-growing and least regulated industries in the world. In the 1970s, the annual volume was 300 million gallons; by 1980, 630 million; and by the end of the 1980s, world-wide two billion gallons were being consumed. In just the last 5 years, there has been over 20% annual growth in sales, and in 2000 over 8 billion gallons (24 billion liters) of water was bottled and traded globally, over 90 percent of it in non-renewable plastic containers.

In the United States alone, bottled water, either plain or flavored, still or fizzy, is the fastest growing “beverage,” with more than $7.9 billion in sales last year, an increase of almost 20 percent in two years, so close to one-fifth of the population relies exclusively on bottled water. While sales of beer, coffee, and milk have remained static, bottled water consumption now outpaces sales of coffee, tea, apple juice, milk, and beer. It is second only to soda pop.

In a few years this ranking may change, now that the beverage makers have agreed to limit sales in elementary and middle schools to bottled water, juices without artificial sweeteners, and nonfat milk products by the school year 2009-10. Not unexpectedly, a spokesperson for the International Bottled Water Association said this decision “reflects an opportunity for the bottled water companies.”

This may be a healthy development for young children, but we should ask, where have all the school water fountains gone? What are the serious consequences of corporate exploitation of our public water commons for private profit? Since this market was created solely by the persuasive power of advertising, is it possible that a long-term campaign about the harms of the bottled water industry to the environment could turn the tide against this commercialization?

Although bottled water may be needed in communities in the U.S. and world-wide that lack reliable and safe drinking water, and for emergencies when bottled water or water delivered by tanker truck is an absolute necessity, there are numerous reasons to question and oppose the bottled water industry.

Briefly, these are:

(1) Regulation: Bottled water itself is not tested by the US Environmental Protection Agency. It is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration with different standards; the FDA does no testing. While Coke’s “Dasani” and Pepsi’s “Aquafina” brands use municipal water, the same that you and I use, that meets US EPA regulations, the standards for parts-per-billion may still be too high for every age-group, and combined effects of toxics are not calculated. Nestle uses spring water, which is only tested by the bottled water industry.

When the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) tested more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands, they found contamination exceeding allowable limits in at least one sample from about 1/3 of the brands, including bacteria, synthetic organic chemicals, and arsenic.

(2) New private water distribution system: Coke, Pepsi and Nestle are creating a whole new “private” water distribution system over which they have full control, including of the water resource through either ownership of land with access to water rights or long-term contracts with private owners or public agencies. Consumers may become reluctant to fund needed upgrades and maintenance of public drinking and wastewater/sewer systems.

(3) Source and Cost: Much bottled water is simply local municipal tap water (Dasani, Aquafina, and other brands) that taxpayers have already paid for to be developed and treated. This is uncounted public subsidy to the private sector. The source may also be local spring water protected from pollution at taxpayer expense. Either way, this water is sold back to the community at a markup of 250-10,000% according to “Inside the Bottle” (Polaris Institute 2005). Municipal tap water is a bargain at an average of $.0015 per gallon.

The withdrawal of large quantities of water from springs and aquifers for bottling has led to well-documented depletion of vital water supplies in many communities worldwide and in the U.S., in Michigan and New Hampshire to cite a few.

(4) Impact on watersheds: Watersheds connect all communities through a system of ground and surface water that flows through and beyond political boundaries. Clearly, one community cannot permit water diversion for bottling at the intensive 24-hour pumping rate the industry requires to meet market demand and pretend it will not affect surrounding wells and the ecosystem.

(5) New stream of toxic pollution from plastic production: We cannot just focus on water diversion for bottling; plastics production for bottles contaminates our air, land and water, and thus, most importantly, our bodies with hormone-disrupting chemicals shown at very small doses to harm public health. More than 10 billion plastic water bottles — 1.5 million tons of plastic is made for the bottled water market — end up as garbage or litter each year and we pay the cost for pollution and disposal with our tax dollars — another uncalculated public subsidy.

(6) Use of non-renewable resources: Vast amounts of non-renewable petroleum and petroleum-based products are used in plastics production, mostly off-shore, especially in Asia, where environmental regulations are low. Petroleum is wasted in the transport of water by tanker truck, ship, or delivery truck, and shipping plastic trash back to Asia to be “re-made” into plastic products perpetuates the cycle.

A Time for Action: Fresh water is a precious resource that grows more precious every day, and we know that water scarcity is a common source of conflict and promises to become more so in this century everywhere. Water should be safe, affordable, and accessible to everyone – not just those who can afford to pay.

As Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians emphasizes: Global water corporations, international financial institutions, trade agreements, and governments have been promoting privatization and commodification of water as a way to deal with the worldwide water crisis.

The bottled water giants — Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Nestle — started out to create a market niche and fad, now they are capitalizing on this crisis while at the same time contributing to water pollution through plastics production and transportation of supplies and finished product around the world.

There is a movement building to ensure that water remains under public control, and there is strong support for an international campaign to enshrine water as a human right at the United Nations. Governments at all levels — from community to state to national — must enshrine the human right to water and protect the ecosystems that people and nature rely on.

Sources for the information above and for corporate profiles, campaigns, and actions you can take: Council of Canadians, Right to Water Campaign, www.blueplanetproject.net; Alliance for Democracy, Defending Water for Life Campaign, www.thealliancefordemocracy.org; Polaris Institute, www.insidethebottle.org; and Food and Water Watch (formerly Public Citizen, Water for All Campaign) www.foodandwaterwatch.org. For several Interfaith Statements on “Water is Life,” and “Water: Essential to Justice and Peace,” see http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/html/eng/2320-AA.shtml