H2O Has Got To Go (Bottled, That Is)

A very interesting article in the 6/18/08 edition of the Los Angeles Times relates how sales of bottled water have slowed down for the first time in many years. In “Americans Turn to Tap as Bottled Water Prices Get Hard to Swallow” by Tali Arbel it seems that a lot of folks are re-discovering the virtues of plain old tap water.

Here is the juicy meat of the matter, at least as far as Frugals are concerned. According to Ms. (?) Arbel, the cost of drinking bottled water vs. tap water works out to something like this:

“Measured in 700-milliliter bottles of Poland Spring, a daily intake of water would cost $4.41, based on prices at a CVS drugstore in New York. Or $6.36 in 20-ounce bottles of Dasani. By half-liters of Evian, that’ll be $6.76. Which adds up to thousands a year.

Even a 24-pack of half-liter bottles at Costco Wholesale Corp., a bargain at $6.97, would be consumed by one person in six days. That comes to more than $400 a year.

But water from the tap? A little more than 0.001 cent for a day’s worth of water, based on averages from an American Water Works Assn. survey — just about 50 cents a year.”

Did you get that ?!: drinking 64 oz of water a day, every day, from your tap will cost you 50 cents a year! In contrast, even the least expensive bottled water will end up costing you $400.00 per year!

When we got married, our in-laws gave us a sink water filter. We have used that for a long time, but about 3 months ago it finally gave up the ghost. So even when I wasn’t a strict tap drinker I might as well have been as far as cost is concerned, since I didn’t pay for the filter. (And believe me, if it hadn’t been a gift, I would never have bought one for myself. Those things are expensive! And since it died, I haven’t noticed at all any difference in my water). But for the most part, I have been a tap drinker since the day I was born and I can assure you that in all that time I have never grown a second head.

I’m sure you can all remember the recent scandal where studies revealed that many of the most popular and “high-end” bottled waters were using plain old tap water as their source. Still, it could be that the safety of the water supply is a legitimate concern (remember that horror movie “Erin Brokovich”?). But I think that here in the U.S. our water sources must be pretty good overall. If you think about it, nothing is possible without safe water. By that I mean everything - growing things, building things, inventing and creating things. Looking at the big picture, the good ol’ USA is still the marvel of history. None of this would have been possible without water. Think about it - countries where the people are not lucky enough to be able to merely turn on a faucet to have access to clean, safe water just are not able to have the standard of living we enjoy here. If a great deal of your day is occupied with finding and transporting safe water, there isn’t much time or energy left over to spare for creating great new inventions.

But one can never underestimate the power of a good marketing plan, especially here in the good ol’ US of A. That is why we have situations where people are willing to pay thousands of dollars a year for what may very well be tap water after all. And of course, what those companies are really selling is fear - that you will grow two heads if you drink tap water (you know, like you will grow two heads if you don’t eat organic vegetables. And do you think that organic vegetable growers water their crops with the “more healthy”and “pure” bottled water? I doubt it, but if they do that could be another reason why o.v.’s are so expensive. How many bottles of Evian does it take to grow one organic tomato, I wonder?).

And by the way, since those revelations about the true sources of many bottled water brands, I have noticed that there have been a lot more “vitamin” and other “enhanced” waters on the market. What’s so natural about that? Plain water is pretty much perfect on its own. But I think that these new “boutique” waters could be a tacit admission that bottled waters are nothing special. Why else would it be necessary to improve on them if they are actually so great (and better than tap water)?

I mean, think about it. Do you really think that these water retailers have some super dooper secret source of super-power water that nobody else knows about? In Milwaukee? Maybe, but the old Noodle tells me that this is highly unlikely. Even if this is true, the benefits are probably a wash when you consider that this (alleged) super dooper water has to be shipped from possibly thousands of mile away (after being bottled in environmentally-harmful plastic containers) before it gets to you. But here’s a provocative thought: let those people living where that water is have it, and we will drink the water closest to us. Everybody wins!

I know that in my little corner of Texas, my local water company spends a lot of money to make sure that they have the latest technology to keep my drinking water safe. Recently they have installed more new filters to take care of an algae situation that happens every springtime after the rains. But guess what? I still pay the same for my water. So, thanks anyways, Big Corporate Bottled Water, I think I’ll stick with my .50 annual drinking-water costs. Even in today’s fiercely expensive world, that’s just about an unbeatable bargain.