Maryland’s Governor O’Malley took a rational stand earlier this month when he ordered all state agencies to stop buying bottled water with taxpayers’ money.
This upset some people, but it is the logical thing to do since we already spend a lot of money on purifying our tap water and installing water fountains. It really is crazy that we spend so much on bottled water, not to mention the resources we expend to manufacture, transport and clean up the bottles.
As someone who believes it is good to drink a lot of water, this is an important issue to me. A few years back, when I ran a water analysis laboratory, I took the top brands of bottled water, analyzed them for a range of chemicals, and compared the results to tap water. The results showed – and confirmed the findings of others – that there were trace amounts of manmade chemicals in all of the bottled water samples and fewer chemicals in the tap water!
I know that some people don’t like the taste of tap water. They say it tastes of chlorine. I have found that if you fill a pitcher and let it sit for a while the chlorine taste goes away. You might also try a filter that can remove the chlorine taste.
Not long ago, I took a canoe trip down the Patapsco River from Howard County to Harbor Hospital in Baltimore. The river was beautiful where it ran through thePiedmont. When it got into the tidewater area, however, I encountered thousands of plastic bottles in the water, among the reeds, and up on the banks. I was shocked that so many bottles had failed to be recycled and ended up in a river.
So I applaud the governor on his cost-saving initiative and am happy to go fill up my reusable glass water bottle from the tap each morning.
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