The small Australian town of Bundanoon is credited with having started the resistance to bottled water, that has now through an initiative by Thames Water, reached as far as Buckingham Palace.

What’s Driving This?

Ever since

• it became clear that the energy input to bottled water could be visualised as a bottle a quarter full of crude oil
• it was shown that the energy required to produce bottled water is 2000 times that to produce tap water
• Watkiss revealed that England imported 20,000 litres ( 5,500 gallons) of water from Australia but at the same time exported 20,000 litres of British water to Australia
• Australia suffered a drought that was so severe than it drove many farmers off the land

there was little doubt that things would start to happen.

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Campaigners in Bundanoon (population 2,500) in New South Wales, were incensed after a beverage company proposed plans to tap an underground reservoir in the town, then bottle and sell the water.

Over 350 residents turned out to vote for the measure. Only 1 resident voted against the ban, along with a representative from the bottled water industry.

One campaigner, John Dee, told the BBC,

The company has been looking to extract water locally, bottle it in Sydney and bring it back here to sell it. It made people look at the environmental impact of bottled water and the community has been quite vocal about it.
We believe Bundanoon is the world’s first town that has got its retailers to ban bottled water. We haven’t found it anywhere else.

Now, all local businesses will stop selling plastic water bottles.

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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, is known for his particularly progressive thinking when it comes to developing the economy of San Francisco.

According to the Long Now Foundation, which recently sponsored a presentation by him, mayors are the most powerful politicians in America, right up there with county supervisors. This is why cities pay so much attention to each other and learn so much from each other.

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More and more homeowners are using rain barrels to conserve water while collecting soft, non-chlorinated rainwater to nourish grass and plants.

This weekend, in Calgary, Canada, Clean Calgary Association, in partnership with the City of Calgary, will hold its 8th Annual Rain Barrel Sale.

With spring coming, local residents there are thinking about their lawns and gardens. Water usage in Calgary doubles in the spring and summer due largely to lawn irrigation.

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Born from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, World Water Day has a different theme every year. This year’s focus is on transboundary waters: sharing water, sharing opportunities.

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So, how did the Soda-Club Sodastream stack up?

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Water fountains in some L.A. schools tested up to 500 times the government level for lead, and high lead levels have been found in our capitol’s water system, but covered up with ‘science fraud‘.

In a nation that’s getting ready to distribute an economic stimulus package of astronomic size, where is the money to stop poisoning our kids?

The author of the exposé of the D.C. lead incident, professor Marc Edwards, an environmental engineer, had this to say: “There’s no question that lead in schools is a big national issue —especially in some of the older urban cities that have this old plumbing infrastructure.”

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I know I have written here and on Non-Toxic Kids about the radiation emitted from cell phones, and the increased risk to children. The Organic Consumer’s Association shared an article about a new study done in Sweden.

The gist? “Children and teenagers are five times more likely to get brain cancer if they use mobile phones, startling new research indicates.” Yes, I thought that would make you stop and read it again. I sure did. The article goes on to explain the risk is much greater for adults who started using cell phones in their teens, and encouraged parents to limit their children’s use of cell phones to emergencies and the usage of headsets and hands-free devices.

I’m certainly listening!

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The company is not only open about the fact that it’s selling purified New York City tap water, it makes that its primary selling point.

“Our goal is to remind New Yorkers to think local, drink their own water, support our community, and do their part for the planet,” reads the company’s online “manifesto.” Tap’dNY’s blog adds, “Seems a shame to drive a bottle of water halfway around the globe, what with the climate and oil situations being what they are.”

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But not so fast, my thrifty water-loving friend–if you live in the city or otherwise have access to municipal treated water. While the clear fluid coming out of your faucet is H2O just like the stuff in that naughty $40 plastic bottle, it may have a few things added to the H’s and O’s that could be more costly than any plastic bottle.

Unfortunately, municipal water treatment nowadays means more than just water cleansed of poop, pee, and various other nasty bits of stuff in order to make for a potable potation coming out of your tap. And what municipalities put into the water could be as unhealthy for the planet as they are for you.

Probably the most infamous introduction to municipal water is fluoride. Way back in the 1940s, fluoride found its way into American water systems after scientists discovered that people who ingested fluoride-treated water apparently had less instances of tooth decay. And ever since, fluoride treatment has been standard practice in municipalities worldwide.

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We’ve been seduced by the beverage industry into believing only they can quench our thirst with colored, caffeinated, vitaminized, electrolyted water. We have become so parched that we can’t walk down the street without toting a single-use plastic bottle touting the magical effects of its water source.

Apparently, Kabbalah Water will heal us and Bling Water will define us. At the Bling H20 website, Bling Water “creator” Kevin Boyd describes noticing on Hollywood studio lots that “you could tell a lot about a person by the bottled water they carried.” First of all, didn’t god create water? Secondly, the water is bottled in Dandridge, Tennessee - since when is Southern Tennessee a spring of L.A. status? Yes, Dandrige’s water ranks very highly on EPA’s water quality index, but why are we spending so much money ($40 for Bling’s “Go Green” 750ml bottle) on cross-continental water instead of cleaning up our local waterways? Tinseltown’s water is so polluted with run-off and industrial contamination that perhaps water by way of Tennessee does make sense.

Here’s what the less blingy among us do:

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It’s ironic. In many parts of the world, there is no clean drinking water. Here in the U.S., pure, drinkable water flows out of every tap, and yet Americans buy a staggering amount of bottled water. We pay big bucks for it, too - over $15 billion a year.

Worst of all, the bottles are overflowing our landfills, and contribute to global warming.

Take a look at this video from Doug James, and then check out these surprising facts.

This story contains additional media. Click here to view the media.

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The recent revelation by The Associated Press that our tap water contains traces of pharmaceutical drugs, hormones and disinfectants elicited a bit of “I told you so!” from The Environmental Working Group when I spoke to them this morning.

Way back in 2005 they published a report, The National Assessment of Tap Water that found that:

Tap water in 42 states is contaminated with more than 140 unregulated chemicals that lack safety standards. In an analysis of more than 22 million tap water quality tests, EWG found that water suppliers across the U.S. detected 260 contaminants in water served to the public. One hundred forty-one (141) of these detected chemicals — more than half — are unregulated.

They posted an update on their report today with this comment from Jane Houlihan, EWG Vice President for Research

“Once again, the press is doing EPA‘s work when it comes to informing the public about contaminated tap water.“

Uh yay.

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Most wastewater and drinking water treatment systems are incapable of removing those drugs. Some scientists said there is probably little human health risk; others fear chronic exposure could alter immune responses or interfere with adolescents’ developing hormone systems