Bottled water could cost over $1000 a year for those that depend on it and they may not realize it. That’s the cash that should be in their savings account. But again, public water fountain will be preferred if they are well maintained.

Sheri’s concern for safe water would be necessary, if she is in one of those countries where tap water is not free of contaminants and living organisms. But U.S. is not one of those countries, (not yet at least).

However, if more number of people opt out of public water system and go for bottled water, there will be less rationale for investing public money in better water purification and water distribution systems, and less demand from the public for better performance and accountability from the water providers. Both of these can lead to a situation where people will be forced to depend on cleaning their own water, as sheri does. A real danger as our water systems as really old.

Incidentally Sheri, you are better off cleaning your own water than depending on bottled water. The tap water in the US is better regulated (with each consumer receiving regular score cards on the quality of water), while bottled water is not as well regulated.

The only thing that goes in favor of bottled water is convenience: of buying when you need water, and throwing the bottle away. When you walk for hours without finding a public source for water, it is indeed tempting to buy a bottle of water, if you do not have your own water. But public water taps at regular intervals with a spout that is suitable for filling a reusable container could easily solve this problem of convenience. Thus my appreciation for this blog. (Now you see why people in Minneapolis supported this).

However for many individuals personal convenience comes before civic responsibility (eg: not spitting or urinating in public place, not using/ throwing plastic bottles away on a regular basis), and this blog will not make a difference to thos people.

But for others worried about the safety about public water, coming from an EPA employee, this blog should provide reassurance about the quality of water we get from our public water systems. Or may be Nancy or someone else from EPA could write another blog about the different types of regulations in place for ensuring the safety of tap water vs. bottled water. It could also include a note on the quality that public water systems in the U.S. strive to maintain.

One last point to support @chs: whether public or private, wasting water, especially such as in the form of constantly running water fountains that loses a lot of water to evaporation (even when it is in the form of public art or it is in the lobby of a corporate building) is a crime given the amount of resources, including energy that goes for purifying it. Such practices should be discouraged, by withholding permits, except for having it run as a closed looped system, or to be run only when the temperature of the atmosphere is same as that of water, thus reducing water loss to evaporation.

But, I am tired of all the disingenuous rhetoric about bottled water. Bottled water is a hundred times better than health damaging soda pop that people consume in mass quantities – which comes packaged in plastic. Why isn’t someone harping about that? I’ll take bottled water over tap water anyday thank you.