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.
