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Is Evian Really Naïve Backwards?
Getting a taste of your own tap water
by Kent Lewis

I grew up in Seattle, a place where tap water was as refreshing as it was safe. As a kid, I never thought about the ramifications of drinking water from a public source, especially because it tasted fine. It wasn’t until I moved to Portland in the 90s that I noticed everyone carrying around bottled water and found it mildly strange and amusing. Was there something wrong with plain old tap water? I was surprised by the answers I found.

Being a marketer myself, I know the power of advertising and branding. The bottled water industry has done a fantastic job of making us all think it’s safer, healthier and more environmentally sound than tap water. In some cases, this may very well be true, but I sensed there was more to the story, so I did a little digging.

According to the International Bottled Water Association, the industry did $22 billion in nationwide sales last year. These revenues are split between 600 bottlers retailing 2,500 brands of bottled water. It’s difficult to believe American’s are willing to pay so much for a free natural resource (roughly 10,000 times as much as a glass of tap water), unless you’re a marketer, of course.

Beyond the price of bottled water, there are significant problems with the industry as a whole. First off, the resources required to produce and distribute water in plastic bottles is harmful to the environment and unnecessary at the current levels of production. Helpful minerals and chemicals like fluorine (added to tap water to protect your teeth from cavities) are filtered out along with other contaminants.

When it comes to being healthier, don’t get your hopes up Mrs. Evian Drinker. A recent study by The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) revealed that 25 percent of a sampling from bottled water off store shelves was found to have contaminants. How could this happen? Easily. The FDA has exempted from regulation, the sale of any bottled water within the state in which it’s produced. Nearly 70 percent of bottled water falls into this criteria, according to the NRDC.

But is bottled water safer than tap? With the threat of terrorism since September 11^th, the argument would seem to have merit. It would be much easier to contaminate a public water supply than individual bottles at the store. Yet the simple fact remains that it has yet to happen, and the current sources of bottled water have been deemed less safe or reliable than tap (assuming these companies aren’t bottling tap water directly).

So where do we go from here? I recommend starting by reducing consumption of bottled water, as you’re better off getting your water directly from the tap. I guess in this case I knew better when I was just a kid.