Bottlemania - Elizabeth Royte [91]
If this was fluffy entertainment, it was also a sign of the times, one that reflected a subtle shift in the cultural landscape—or at least the part concerned with personal hydration. Growing concerns about the privatization of water, including water for bottling, conflicted with concerns about the ability of government to safeguard what we drink. When the Associated Press reported in March 2008 on low levels of pharmaceuticals detected in tap water, every major news outlet pounced on the story. Groups that condemn bottled water responded with calls for increased investment in municipal water supplies and reminded the public that, since much of bottled water comes from tap water sources, we can’t be sure it’s drug-free, either.
Across the country, the threat of new boreholes and bottling plants was spurring people to think about where their water comes from, at what cost, and how much of it is left—big news in a world apparently more concerned with downloading the latest mobile phone app than the state of our natural resources. The fight against pumping from springs also led to the introduction or strengthening of regulations that protect groundwater. But as concerned citizens began to think more about what they were drinking, more questions arose: What’s best for my family and me? What’s best for my bud get? What’s best for the environment? And what if the answer to all three questions isn’t the same?
The bottled-water industry was chasing its own villains as well. A day before Bottlemania’s official release, the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) released a “media advisory” headlined “Bottlemania’s Focus on Bottled Water Dilutes the Real Environmental and Drinking Water Challenges and Opportunities.” (Perhaps in his rush to make deadline, the author of the press release missed those chapters on the importance of protecting watersheds, fixing municipal pipes, and improving water treatment plants—almost a third of the book.) And in November 2008, the Financial Times reported that Bottlemania “was held up as serious cause for concern at the annual conference of the British bottled water industry this month. Industry executives fear the work, which was published in May, could be as influential on public sentiment as Eric Schlosser’s . . . investigation into the American fast food industry, Fast Food Nation.”
Whether or not a comparison of the two books is apt, there’s a reason this kind of talk concerns the water industry. In 2008, bottled water sales in the United States saw the slowest growth since 1991, when Paula Abdul had a Top Ten hit and there was no such thing as a water aisle in most American grocery stores. The U.S. market for bottled water grew just 2.3 percent in 2008, compared with about 8 percent in the previous two years. Part of the reason was the teetering economy: Consumers who once considered bottled water an affordable indulgence now slake their thirst with local tap water. But the turn against the bottle began before the collapse of Wall Street, as anti-bottled water groups and more general-interest greenies harped on the environmental footprint of the product.
Such messages resonated not only with tree huggers. In June 2008, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution that encouraged cities to “phase out, where feasible, government use of bottled water and promote the importance of municipal water.” As of January 2009, more than sixty mayors (plus the entire Berkeley, California, school district) had cancelled their bottled-water contracts, and the advocacy group Corporate Accountability International was pressuring governors to do the same. In March, all of Connecticut took the leap, saving an estimated $500,000 a year. In Canada, a dozen municipalities, including Toronto, one