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Back to the Tap Movement

• David Fankhauser, PhD
• Professor of Biology and Chemistry
• University of Cincinnati Clermont College

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Introduction

• Clean water is essential for life.
• Population pressures are leading to competition
  for water.
• Pure, clean, safe water is everyones goal, some
  cities do this well.
• But is bottled water better?
• What are the real costs, both financially and to
  the environment?
• What can I do?
• What should we as a society do?

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What might be wrong with tap water?

• We flush our wastes into our rivers Out of
  sight, out of mind.
• The America (and all of humanity) has a poor
  record on adequate treatment of waste water.
• Many chemicals sent into the sewage waste stream
  are passed through sewage treatment.

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Cincinnati water in the bad old days
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Today, officially this water is treated
Major contaminants are removed in STPs. But,
for instance, is soap removed in the Nine Mile
STP? Many chemicals are resistant to standard
treatment.
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Some pharmaceuticals are not removed by treatment

• These pharmaceuticals
• Antibiotics
• anti-convulsants
• mood stabilizers
• sex hormones
• These have been found in the drinking water
  supplies of at least 41 million Americans.
• Including bottled water

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Evidence of effects of drugs in water

• Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) interfere
  by mimicking, blocking, or altering hormones and
  their signaling systems. An example is the
  feminization of male fish.

Fathead Minnow, studied at Cincinnati EPA The
majority of EDCs reach aquatic environments via
effluents of sewage treatment plants.
http//www.epa.gov/eerd/VGQPCR.htm
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In some parts of the world, bottled water makes
sense.

• In some countries, it is wise to drink only
  bottled water.
• But developed countries generally have high
  quality tap water.

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NYC GREAT water

• New York City, because of its protected
  watershed, has superb quality tap water.

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Baltimore also protects its watershed

• The Loch Raven Reservoir watershed is the largest
  watershed within Baltimore County.

Baltimore city
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Land use in Baltimores watershed
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SW Ohio had a chance for pure water
The East Fork Reservoir drained low population,
non-industrialized region (but with considerable
agricultural usage). But CECOS, a mammoth
national toxic waste dump, was permitted directly
up stream Now closed, the wastes remain as a
threat.
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What exactly IS bottled water?

• Much bottled water is no more than filtered
  municipal tap water.
• For instance
• Aquafina by Pepsi-Cola
• Dasani by Coca-Cola
• Both municipal water

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Pepsis original slogan for Aquafina "So pure,
we promise nothing"

• As well they couldnt
• A classic PR scam

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Ironically, standards are lower for bottled water
than tap water

• Tap water is much more strictly regulated and
  tested.
• Water bottlers are not required to test for the
  presence of E. coli, Cryptosporidium, Giardia,
  asbestos, or certain organic compounds such as
  benzenes

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Why is it so popular?

• Corporate ad campaigns instill fear of tap water,
  implying that bottled water is safer
• Status symbol (only poor or low class drink tap
  water)
• Push for drinking 8 glasses of water a day
  (follow the money)
• Does not taste like chlorine
• Avoiding sugar drinks

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Much more expensive than gasoline
So what do you pay for bottled water?
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How absurd can we get?

• Deep seawater from Hawaii is the most expensive
  bottled water in the world.
• Hawaii Deep Marine Inc.s Kona Nigari water,
  sells for 33.50 per 2 oz bottle.
• Its extracted from a depth of 915 feet, over 700
  feet more than is necessary for the water to be
  considered deep seawater.

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And the cost to the environment?

• Plastic manufacture, bottling, and transport all
  cost oil.
• 86 of empties in the States are sent to landfill.

(In the orient, they are better at recycling.)
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Any guess what we are looking at?
Hint this is five minutes worth
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Getting closer
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In 5 minutes 2,000,000 water bottles in US
http//www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php
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Phthalates and Bisphenol A

• PET bottles (1) are made with polyethylene
  terephthalate. Phthalates are hormone
  disrupters.
• Bisphenol A is found in beverage bottles marked
  7 (including some baby bottles). It is an
  estrogen like compound.
• Bottled water stored for long periods, especially
  in the heat, leach these materials into the
  water.
• Never heat beverages in a PET container.

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America has among the safest tap water, but
consumes most bottled water
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A caution about home water filters
1) Place a sterile Millipore filter 2)
Attach a cylinder 3) Draw
water through with vacuum
Fresh tap water Filtered tap water
4) Place filter on nutrient pad
http//biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Labs/Microbio
logy/Drinking_Water/jpgs/Drinking_water.html
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At home

• Draw tap water and allow to breathe overnight
  to reduce chlorine. (Fill a glass gallon jug
  half full.)
• Change filter on your water filter regularly
  (monthly?).
• Dispose of pharmaceuticals (Incineration?
  Hazwaste? Landfill?)
• Do not use garbage disposal, it adds to sewage
  treatment plant load.
• Be an activist to your water works read the
  analysis reports, demand they test for
  pharmaceuticals.

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Making the broader community Bottled Water
unfriendly

• Insist on tap water in the US and other developed
  countries when served water.
• Push to remove bottled water service at all
  functions government, church, business, etc.
• Tax or require deposit on all bottles.
• (Chicago already has a 5 cent tax/bottle.)
• Reduce use and discharge of pharmaceuticals into
  waterways.
• Work to make Knox Presbyterian Church Bottled
  Water Free and to promote such actions in the
  local Council of Churches, and to petition
  remedial actions by the City of Cincinnati and
  beyond.

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Model for a petition to the church governing body

• WHERE AS
• Bottled water is damaging to our environment due
  to plastics used, cost of bottling, energy cost
  of transportation, the widespread litter it
  generates, and the requirements for landfill
  disposal.
• Municipal tap water is as a rule more carefully
  regulated and at least as safe as bottled water.
• One of the roles of the church is to be a good
  shepherd to our environment and to guide the
  community in morally responsible practices to
  this end.
• BE IT RESOLVED
• We the undersigned attendees of Knox
  Presbyterian Church request that the church make
  it policy to discourage the use of bottled water
  at church functions.
• We request that Knox Presbyterian Church propose
  to the local Council of Churches that the Council
  take a stand against the use of bottled water.