Contact:

Food & Water Watch Supports Senate Bill 790 Requiring Disclosure of Contamination in Bottled Water:

Executive Director Wenonah Hauter Testifies Before Subcommittee, Calls For Increased Investment in Public Water Infrastructure

Washington, DC—Today the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality will hear testimony on SB 790, which amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require manufacturers of bottled water to submit annual reports about contamination. Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch will testify to the subcommittee about the environmental, economic and equity issues associated with bottled water and to call for increased funding in public drinking and wastewater infrastructure.

“Every year, U.S. consumers spend over $8.8 billion on bottled water yet they have been mislead about the benefits of bottled water,” said Hauter. “They have bought into the myth created by the beverage industry’s marketing magic that water in a bottle is safer and healthier than tap water. It is not.”

Tap water is highly regulated under the Safe Drinking Water act by the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA requires that water systems serving more than one million residents test 300 water samples per month, while utilities serving three million people or more must collect and test 480 samples monthly. Unlike the bottled water industry, which does not have to inform consumers of testing results, utilities are required to make their testing results available to consumers.

Moreover, the bottled water industry has left a sizable carbon footprint on modern American society:

•    More than 25 billion plastic water bottles are sold each year in the United States.
•    More than 17 million barrels of oil (not including fuel for transportation) were used in plastic bottle production.
•    Bottling water produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.
•    The total amount of energy used to produce, transport, refrigerate and dispose of a plastic bottle of water may be as high as the equivalent of filling a 33-ounce bottle one-quarter full of oil.
•    About 86% of the empty plastic water bottles in the U.S end up in landfills rather then being recycled.

The bottling of water for commercial purposes is taxing on the communities water is taken from as well. Extracting water damages regional water supplies and ecosystems and by extension the activities—agriculture, tourism and domestic that depend on that water for sustenance. Bottled water companies often use the promise of new jobs to convince communities to let them open new bottling facilities. In reality, these jobs are few in number, low paying and dangerous.

“The people and businesses in a watershed have the right to use it reasonably for drinking, growing food and other activities in the community. Over the long term, as communities enter into contracts with companies that extract water, it could become difficult for states and local governments to regulate water removal, leading to a domino-effect where water is taken freely with very little regulation,” said Hauter.

To restore the public’s faith in tap water and to ensure that future generations of Americans have access to safe, clean, affordable water, Food & Water Watch recommends that Congress pass a clean water trust fund. Such an act would ensure that communities have the financial resources necessary to keep their pipes upgraded, their water safe and their natural resources in their community, while creating as many as 47,500 jobs long-term, sustainable jobs. Food & Water Watch also recommends that Congress require labels on all bottled water to include the source of the water, how and whether it was treated, the presence of regulated and unregulated contaminants and information about the high environmental and economic cost of bottled water.

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer rights organization based in Washington, D.C. that challenges the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources. Visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org.