Bottlemania

An excellent new book tells the story of our drinking water crisis by focusing, in particular, on the bitter dispute that erupted between the townspeople of Fryeburg, Maine, and Nestle's Poland Spring, which wanted to bottle their water. Bottlemania, by Garbage Land author Elizabeth Royte, will be out in bookstores in the coming weeks (you can pre-order it at Royte's website, Bottlemania.net).

Royte and I spoke on the phone, yesterday, about the most recent drinking water scare, the Associated Press report that traces of a variety of pharmaceuticals can be found in our tap water (you can find my response to that report here). Here are Royte's thoughts on what can be done about the drugs in the water:

• To put the problem into perspective, there are much higher levels of hormones and antibiotics in our meat and milk.
• None of us should put our unused drugs down the toilet and pharmaceutical companies should institute some sort of take back scheme so drugs are safely disposed.
• Municipalities, with help from the federal government, should invest in existing drinking water treatment technologies that can remove the drugs.
• To offset the costs of the use of these technologies, rain water collection and gray water reuse systems should be established so less water requires treatment.
• Drug makers should be encouraged to reformulate their products to break down quickly and harmlessly in the environment so they can't end up back in our drinking water in the first place.
• Since 90% of antibiotics are used on farm animals, new regulations must be put in place to ensure that antibiotics excreted by them don't end up in our drinking water.

Lastly, here is a paragraph from Bottlemania, which encapsulate Royte's good, balanced approach to the question of public tap water versus privatized bottled water:

"I come away from my investigations," she writes, "with at least one certainty: not all tap water is perfect. But it is the devil we know, the devil we have standing to negotiate with and improve. Bottled water companies don't answer to the public, they answer to shareholders. As Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman write in Thirst, 'If citizens no longer control their most basic resource, their water, do they really control anything at all?'"

Comments

[Leslie]

"gray water reuse systems should be established so less water requires treatment."

Established? What does that mean? Gray water reuse systems should be required in the building code for new structures.

[Xiaolu]

Hi Colin,
First of all, I love your blog and what you're trying to do. Among other things, reading your entries has motivated me to take more responsibility in my own life. For example, when people give me odd looks for taking bottles/plastic containers home because there is limited recycling at my workplace, it's good to remember that there are like-minded people elsewhere.
Since you mentioned the use of antibiotics in farm animals above, I was wondering what you think of the recently released Pew report on CAFOs (reported on here: http://tinyurl.com/43bybz)? I'm impressed at the strength of the findings/recommendations despite pressure from the industry. I've already written all my Congressmen to support the bill mentioned at the end of the article, but I'm uncertain whether it has any real chance of being passed.
-Xiaolu

[Sara]

I can't wait for this book to come out. I'm thinking about organizing a book club in my office and starting off the discussion with this one.

Coincidentally, it is National Drinking Water Week.

[Jessica]

I don't know why anyone in their right mind would pay for water, dispite all this. I believe I've posted the valuable wisdom my drill sergeant once gave me here before, but I'll say it again.
There are two things in this world you should never, ever pay for: water and sex. Water and sex are free. They're everywhere.

[Taffy]

I loved Garbage Land- and will certainly read her next book, although, in my case, she's preaching to the converted. I've never bought bottled water and never take it from other people when offered.

In my town, although we mostly have septics, grey water systems have been illegal for the last 20 + years. Rediculous!! I like all of Elizabeth's suggestions- there's one more: keep yourself healthy so you don't need to buy medicines and 2) eat no or less meat- so minimize the chemicals coming into the water supply.

[anne]

If Elizabeth Royte's new book is anywhere near as good as Garbage Land, it will be a very good read, and I look forward to it. Colin, I've been passing along your argument that we need to preserve our drinking water as a public resource for all to just about everyone I know--it isn't something that has occurred to many people. And Xiaolu, thanks for the heads up on the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act. I just called my congressman's office and told them I wanted him to support it. Colin--a future blog topic for you! I, for one, am sick of feeling that everything I eat and drink has been contaminated by antibiotics and hormones. We hold Congressional hearings when our baseball players are suspected of using growth hormones, yet we give the milk of hormone-fed cows to our children.

[arduous]

Oh wow! I loved Garbage Land. Elizabeth Royte knows how to make TRASH interesting, so I am really excited to read her next book. :)

And Jessica, I like your words to live by. Two things to never pay for. Heh. I like it.

[Susan Och]

Once again I'm thinking about infrastructure. A few states have attempted to balance their budgets by leasing their infrastructure, namely their their toll roads. The Indiana Toll Road and the Chicago Skyway were recently leased to a Spanish-Australian consortium, with a 65 year lease.

With all of the back maintenance piling up on our municipal water systems, I wouldn't be surprised if someone comes up with the bright idea to try privatisation or leasing of municipal water.

[Western Family]

Create your own grey water system: 1)Our house plants thrive on the dog's drooled-in water. 2)Route the bath water out to the garden, or the washing machine water onto the lawn. 3)Use natural soaps, and you have a natural pesticide built in. 4)When you wash your car, pull it onto the lawn first.

These are feel-good things, but they really add up.

[heather]

I like the idea of drug companies having drug-return programs in place to keep people from disposing of their drugs in unsafe ways, although it's not really their fault that people flush drugs down the toilet. I think the point about altering drug solubility in water is kind of ridiculous though. Drugs need to be at least somewhat water-soluble in order to have decent bioavailability, so that they'll actually work inside our bodies. Plus, it's just another thing drug companies will charge us for.

[Zach]

How to solve the water crisis:

1) Use less

2) Use smarter

3) Forget about the Joneses

4) Fire up your community starting with your family, then neighbors, then neighborhood, then city, county, then state. By the time the state legislature is fired up there'll be momentum behind the changes.

Many of the "social changes" Colin talks about are actually simply scaled-up versions of what we all should be doing ourselves. Those who can't do things on their own-- such as composting, grey/black-water retrieval, commuting to work, etc-- need to put extra energy into helping out their neighbors and community and then taking a cut of their resources. A "general resource cooperative", if I may.

Zach
pennywise-poundfoolish.typepad.com

[Muriel Mercurial]

"Since 90% of antibiotics are used on farm animals, new regulations must be put in place to ensure that antibiotics excreted by them don't end up in our drinking water."

Actually, a better way to ensure antibiotics from farm animals don't end up in our drinking water is to improve their living conditions so that they don't need them in the first place. Because of the crowded quarters and dirty, unsafe living conditions, farm animals are given antibiotics to prevent infection from wounds and illness. The simplest way to solve that problem is to change our factory farming policies and get rid of government subsidiaries that support the administration of antibiotics.

I really like your blog, you have really great advice! I admire what you do.

[Andrew]

I love the idea of using Elizabeth Royte's book for a discussion group! Every library in the US should do the same. I'll pass it on to other libraries in my area and hope everyone else will do the same. Maybe we should convince Oprah to read it and sell the idea on her show. I've written to her once about the problems with privatization of water but haven' heard back. Maybe others should contact her as well.