By Michelle Lizon

Tap water has tough competition these days. Some bottled water travels thousands of miles, comes from an artesian well in Europe and touts extra oxygen and minerals, and it all comes in an eye-catching, on-the-go container.

By 2007, Americans were drinking around 8 billion gallons of bottled water annually, and many stores now dedicate half an isle to bottled water to meet the rising consumption of the product nationwide.

Bottled water is also growing in popularity at BYU, with about 200,000 bottles of water sold from campus vending machines each semester - an amount that nearly matches vending purchases of soft drinks.

Convenience, health-consciousness, taste and quality are several of the major factors driving people to buy bottled water on campus.

For BYU students like Paige Crosland, bottled water is just an easy way to hydrate in a hurry.

"You're on campus, thirsty and want something to take with you, and it's available," she said. "I do, however, try to keep my water bottles for several weeks because they are filling up landfills."

Plastic bottles continue to make up a greater portion of waste, especially in places like Utah where less recycling is done. It is a concern that grows alongside the rising bottled water consumption.

Although it can be harmful to the environment and fairly pricey, bottled water is helping some people who would usually buy a sugar-filled drink out of convenience pick water instead.

The International Bottled Water Association asserts that water consumption should be encouraged, whether it's from the tap or the bottle. They claim the appeal of bottled water is increasing in the wake of alarming obesity growth in the United States.

While bottled water may be helping some make wiser health choices, some students and faculty see it as a waste of money and prefer to buy a bottle only occasionally and fill it up with tap water.

Although bottled water may seem like a luxury in contrast to getting it from the public pipes, tap water isn't as free as it may seem. It costs nearly $3.5 billion to run the nation's water system each year. Most people who pay for bottled water still have to pay a monthly water bill and taxes that go toward monitoring the country's water supply, which means they're paying for water they don't drink.

Still, public water is far less expensive for the average consumer when compared with the price of bottled water. In the United States, it costs households about two dollars for every 1,000 gallons of water supplied to their home, while the same amount of bottled water could cost up to $4,000.

"I don't buy bottled water because tap water is free and I am a cheapskate," BYU student Christina Clark said. "My in-laws ... always drink bottled water because they think it tastes better. I think tap water tastes just as good if you are willing to take the time to get used to it."

Anyone who has downed a glass of water in more than one state knows that not all tap water is created equal. Some students and faculty dislike the taste of public water so much that they're willing to buy bottled water instead.

Still others question the safety and quality of public water supplies. Although there may seem to be a large division between tap water and bottled water, both have the same thing in common: a wide range of quality.

The large bottled water marketing campaign has given rise to a new image that bottled water may somehow be more pure or safe than regular tap water. Some advertising depicts models sipping bottled water that seems to come from an untouched lake or take them to a cascading waterfall.

From spring water to sparkling water, some bottled water deserves the snow-capped Alpine label it bears, while other brands do not. About 40 percent of bottled water actually comes from public water sources, with added minerals making the only difference.

These public water sources are highly protected, and currently more than 90 percent of the country's water systems meet the EPA's standards for tap water quality. Despite this, things such as improperly disposed chemicals, pesticides and even naturally occurring substances can pose threats to public water safety.

Regardless of the strict inspection of community water sources, confidence in tap water erodes when utilities fail to catch contaminants that create health hazards.

Recently, a baby was hospitalized and more than 270 other residents of Alamosa, Colo. became ill after drinking tap water contaminated with salmonella. The city's drinking water - a source once taken for granted - became debilitated for days as chlorine was flushed through the water pipes.

Although municipal water sources occasionally become unsafe to drink, many of the regulation failures have not caused major health threats.

"The United States public water supplies are among the safest in the world," said David Stevens, an engineer with the Utah Water Research Laboratory, "in part because of the willingness of the municipal suppliers to go public with the information.

"[Bottled water] companies aren't required to do this. If a problem is discovered they quietly recall the bottles from the shelves to avoid going public and hurting their reputations."

Although most bottled water is fairly safe, it can also contain contaminants just like tap water. The risks of drinking bottled water are about the same as drinking from the spigot, according to a four-year study of the bottled water industry by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"In all likelihood, tap water is tested a lot more for contaminants than bottled water," said Ken Bousfield, director of Utah's Division of Drinking Water. "There are watershed, construction and operator standards for tap water that are not found with bottled water."

While the Environmental Protection Agency regulates public water quality, the Food and Drug Administration is in charge of monitoring bottled water and looks to the EPA's standards as a guide. Because the FDA claims their experience with the bottled water industry has yielded a record of safety, they tend to give bottled water plants a lower inspection priority.

Despite a seemingly good record, bad bottled water does turns up. Last year, the FDA issued alerts for bottled water imported from Armenia that contained arsenic - an element commonly found in pesticides and insecticides. The FDA obtained samples of the bottled water, which contained 44 times more arsenic than the the standard allows.

In Utah, state bottling facilities receive inspections every three months and are tested for contaminants that exceed the state limits. Plants in Utah also have to pass tests before they receive certification to produce bottled water.

Copyright Brigham Young University 22 May 2008