Response: Jake's Why Process Water

Jake's blog post deals with the growing trend to drink bottled water over regular faucet-style water. The article he includes also reflects Jake's opinion: bottled water is wasteful, not any healthier for you, distracts authorities from properly managing faucet water sources, and is expensive. Many of his points are supported and well defended, but I do have a few critical observations.

While bottled water is wasteful (water bottles do create waste, but they can also be recycled) and may not be any healthier than tap water, some are concerned that our water supplies are tainted with chemicals (hormones, drugs, consumer products, etc.) that are unable to be removed during the filtration process. The source of these abnormal chemicals is people dumping medications or other chemicals down the toilet or sink. Tiny trace amounts of these chemicals may not be harmful, but who knows if there will be a scientific study that will prove otherwise. Even if bottled water is only filtered tap water, it may give people reassurance that they are more protected against an outbreak that may occur in their town's tap water.

Your well water experience sounds much more pleasant than mine. I grew up with well water for about 7 years and I absolutely despised the smell and taste. I grew accustomed to it, but my friends and visitors always complained about its irony taste. So while your well experience was fine and dandy, others may not be so lucky. Still, it does not mean that if you have disgusting well water that you need to buy tons of bottled water. There are many other alternatives like buying a personal filter (Brita, Pur, etc.) or something like a Culligan water cooler.

All in all though, I do feel like you make very valid points. I have fallen victim to our times so I can't say I never buy bottled water, but I do feel like it is a waste of money for the most part. It seems to be better to buy something like a Gatorade or Vitamin Water to give something extra besides just water. Then again, you can make your own Gatorade mix in your own reusable bottle if you wanted to cut back on wasteful bottle tossing.