Interesting Environmental Working Group study:
Bottled Water Quality Investigation: 10 Major Brands, 38 Pollutants
From the report:
- Unlike tap water, where consumers are provided with test results every year, the bottled water industry does not disclose the results of any contaminant testing that it conducts.
- Two of 10 brands tested, Walmart's and Giant's (this appears to not be the Pa. Giant chain) store brands, bore the chemical signature of standard municipal water treatment -- a cocktail of chlorine disinfection byproducts, and for Giant water, even fluoride. In other words, this bottled water was chemically indistinguishable from tap water.
- Typical cost of bottled water is $3.79 per gallon, 1,900 times the cost of public tap water.
Bottled water is poorly regulated and 1,900 times the cost of tap water, what a deal.
York Water Company's 2008 water quality report for tap water.
You do not give the source of your information or the location of the testing. Where I live in Fairview Township (American Water Co.) the water is so terrible, particularly for the first several hours of the day, that no way could I ever drink it right out of the faucet or in any liquid such as hot tea. I buy Walmart's 2.5 gallon container of spring water and about three years ago had it tested and the results were excellent. While I realize that test results will differ from one day/week/month, even year, to the next, I'll still take my chances with this water. It's cheap--around $2.00 each, and its source is Roaring Springs, along Rt. 15, in Adams? or northern York Co.? It has a very neutral taste--no chemicals or off-smells or taste.
When still living in northern Va. I sometimes would buy a gallon of Giant's water for some special reason such as a "boil water" emergency. I remember reading on the labels that the source of the water was Baltimore's tap water. So yes, I would expect substances such as flouride to be in the water, but it didn't taste bad. I don't drink water from the York Water Co. often and think it is good.
I'm not clear as to whether you are asking me about the tap water testing or the bottle water testing. York Water would be tested from their system and the Environmental Working Group study cites several brands and testing locations.
No doubt there will be variations in municipal supplies and bottled water sources and bottlers.
Taste and smell isn't always indicative of what's in water.
Something else to consider is the plastic water bottle that comes with the bottled water. Some plastics impart a sweet taste to water making you think it tastes good.
Something else to consider is the plastic generated to make the bottles and all the oil needed to make the bottles, transport the water bottles to store, and recycle/dispose of the plastic bottles.
A home or tap water filter is often a more economical solution for water taste when on a municipal water system.
If you are having an odor problem in the first few hours of every day, consider your home plumbing as a source of bad taste (old steel pipes, aging water heater) as municipal systems are often so large, with their network of mains, that it would be difficult to have fluctuations that occur that often.
Thanks for your comments
As long as communities add fluoride chemicals to public water supplies, the water is not safe to drink.
Charcoal filtration does not remove fluoride.
Growing evidence shows that ingesting fluoride chemicals via the water supply to prevent tooth decay is ineffective, harmful to health and a waste of money.
Take action to end fluoridation here:
http://congress.FluorideAction.Net
York Water is a municipal supplier that has a no fluoride policy.
http://www.yorkwater.com/fluoride.pdf
The Environmental Working Group study states the some bottle water contains fluoride because it it bottled from municipal supplies that use fluoride. One of the points of the story was that certain substances weren't required to be printed on labels of bottled water.
There are different requirements and different government agencies for bottled water and municipal supplies.
And while a municipal supply is a bricks and mortar entity where we can determine the source of water, know who owns it, request an analysis; bottled water is more of a free market item where you cannot as easily determine the source (has anyone seen water imported from China yet?), eats oil in transportation and creating bottles, and creates a waste recycle stream.
Because water is such an abundant resource, there is a greater potential to fool the consumer through bottling rather than piping unless the bottling industry is highly regulated and the consumer is throughly informed.
I also so in the news that the water from giant (arcadia) contained acetaminophen as well as components of fertilizer. This is what happens when everyone throws their old prescriptions down the toilet. I bet if your home water as well as anyone elses would have so many contaminates you would want to just skip drinking water all together