TheMillerCircle.org

Years ago, we began learning about possible contaminants to our water supply through nightmare stories like “Love Canal” which quickly got embedded into our lexicon. I looked into some of the recent issues about water quality and decided to install an RO (stands for reverse osmosis; reverse because normally the dissolved material (solute) goes through a filter, like a semipermeable membrane but with RO, its the solvent (water) that goes through leaving everything else behind…hence ‘reverse’) water filter attached to our normal water supply. An RO filtration system is based on a fine semipermeable membrane that allows water through but very little else. Then, when combined with a charcoal filter, you have a very high quality source of water, because, to begin with, our water supply is generally safe. But, as you know, more and more bottled water is being sold and it seems as though people are under the impression that our water supply is not safe, so that bottled water is the way to go. But, numerous reports indicate that this is not the case and that, quite often, the bottled water you see labeled as “spring water” is more contaminated than your tap water. Some brands do carry bottled, RO water and you have some assurances about that water quality because an RO filter system can take some very ugly water and make high quality drinking water out of it, but it is usually far more expensive.
There are other arguments that have been advanced against using bottled water. Today, our annual consumption of bottled water requires the use of 1.5 million gallons of oil to generate the plastic bottles that this form of water comes in, enough to drive 100,000 cars on gasoline for a year; so the use of such huge quantities of plastic feed the carbon imbalance and contribute to climate change. The demand for water is so high in some areas that, to supply it, local populations and farmers have experienced water shortages. Bottled water is very expensive. It can cost up to 10,000 times the cost of tap water. Furthermore, the evidence shows that even though you think you are recycling the empty plastic bottles, only about 10% of all the plastic bottles get recycled, the rest lie in landfills that will require centuries if not more for recycling. My own advice is that if you are really committed to using bottled water, install an RO device in your home; they are easy to install and they are available on ebay or at Home Depot. They are cheap to maintain and and require little effort to keep them functioning. You can even measure the quality of your water by using an inexpensive impedance electrode available on ebay for a few dollars. Then, when you want to take bottled water with you, fill your containers up at home. If you have an apartment you can get one of the many tap or faucet filters that are quite effective and portable.

RFM