The safety of drinking water is an ongoing concern within the global society. No doubt, the quality of drinking water is the most essential factor. So let’s take a closer look on what is important when we talk about drinking water quality.
In the previous section, tap and bottled water regulations were described. Drinking water quality in the United States remains the safest in the world. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets legal limits for over 90 contaminants in drinking water. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) allows states to set and enforce their own drinking water standards as long as the standards meet or exceed EPA’s minimum national standards (ASCE 2017 Infrastructure Report Card). Furthermore, tap water standards and quality
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Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water as a packaged food under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The standards for quality of bottled water are set by FDA based on the EPA standards for tap drinking water. In fact, EPA has MCL regulations for 96 contaminants, and FDA has Standards of Quality (SOQ) regulations for 91 contaminants, for a net difference of 5. Both EPA and FDA set the same maximum allowable contaminant levels for 83 contaminants. However, FDA has standards for 4 contaminants/water properties that EPA does not, and EPA has standards for 11 contaminants that FDA does not (Hirst, p.15, …show more content…
Community water systems deliver water to consumers through one million miles of pipes across the United States. Many of those pipes were laid in the early to middle of 20th century with a lifespan of 75 to 100 years. Every day, nearly six billion gallons of treated drinking water are lost due to leaking pipes, with the estimated 240,000 water main breaks occurring each year. The leaky, aging pipes are wasting 14 to 18% of each day’s treated water; the amount of clean drinking water lost every day could support 15 million households (ASCE 2017 Infrastructure Report Card). But the leak of the water is not the most concern. Homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead pipes, fixtures and solder. Treated water running through the lead pipes get contaminated, even though it has left water treatment plant in safely drinkable
e. Governmental rule (tightly restricted, loose enough to give industry room to grow/compete.) Bottled water producers in the United States were required to meet the standards of both the EPA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Like all food and beverage products sold in the United States, bottled water was subject to such food safety and labeling requirements as nutritional labeling provisions and general Good
Drinking water provided by a municipality, “tap”, is regulated by the EPA. Additionally, the Safe Water Drinking Act requires all states submit annual reports regarding public water system violations to the EPA. The EPA determines Maximum Contaminant Level Goals (MCLGs) for tap water. The goals are the levels at which a consumer could perceivably drink
The advertising of bottled water companies often implies that tap water is impure. Is your tap water safe to drink? Some people think that water straight from the faucet could contain chemicals that cause illness and even cancer, but it doesn't. Pesticides and other chemicals do not contaminate drinking water.
All the controversy about the lead problems in Flint, Michigan has stirred up questions across the country. Every day there are several news stories about cities across the country discussing the lead issue and how they meet the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. While the average person may feel comforted by these news stories, it doesn’t mean that every home served by the water supply has lead below the EPA’s recommended action level. It’s the job of water treatment professionals to educate those served by municipal water about the regulations surrounding lead and copper and what those consumers can do to protect themselves further.
The Flint, Michigan water crisis has caused the nation to rethink if the water they drink is safe or not due to toxic substances such as lead posing a threat to drinking water. It leads to a nationwide investigation on the water system and most of them have failed to meet federal safety standards for lead and other harmful substances. Such crisis puts spotlights on government agencies responsible for tracking the water system and why they fail to protect the public from this crisis. The water infrastructure of the nation is old and worn out and fixing it would cost 30 billion to replace lead pipes and one trillion to upgrade the water mains.
To answer this question, we don’t have to look far. Last week, the Ithaca City School District shut off their water supply after the detection of “high levels of lead.” In Newark, New Jersey, 17,000 children are now being tested for lead poisoning. In Long Island, New York, dilapidated cesspools leaking nitrogen have led to a mass die-off of flora and fauna within the Long Island Sound. These incidents represent a fraction of the growing disaster that is our nation’s water infrastructure. Experts on urban water infrastructure have characterized water mains as “ticking time bombs.” Their characterizations are justified for the most part—many aging water mains have pipes made from wooden planks wrapped in metal coil. From 2004 to 2009, 316 contaminants were detected in water supplied to the public.
In Flint, Michigan, residents had high levels of lead in their water. The problem arose when the budget cuts were being made by the city’s government to decrease the debt. The city switched to Flint River as their water source without testing the water for harmful substances. Many residents were having medical issues but government officials ignored them. Also, many families could not afford bottled water and had to keep using tap water. A pediatrician found the problem when they observed the result of blood tests from residents of the town. The city switched back to their original water but it was too late, the lead had already corroded the pipes. As parents began to get more worried for their children’s health the federal government
It is very common for research groups to set up a "bottled water taste test". The results are always the same: without a label, there is no obvious difference among any kind of bottled water or even tap water. Yet millions of Americans routinely buy bottled water and re-filter their tap water. The Clean Water Act of 1972 was supposed to ensure all water sources were pure and safe for drinking or swimming. Enforcement simply did not go far enough, and public information on contaminants grew much faster than purification programs did. A series of laws followed the 1972 Act in
Water is an essential part of daily living and having clean water in the United States is becoming a topic of discussion. According to World Health Organization, (2015) “six hundred- sixty six million people lack access to safe water, twice the population of the United States lives without access to safe water”. The question becomes is bottle water safer than tap water in the United States. The bottle water industry would strongly disagree indicating bottle water is regulated more than tap water.
Lastly, bottled water comes with some environmental issues as well. There are many different reasons why people around the world buy bottles of water instead of using their tap water right at home from their kitchen sink. Many people use bottled water because of the rumor that bottled water is safer than tap water. Some people use bottled water because they do not like the smell of tap water, or we can use Flint Michigan as an example by saying that some people purchase because of contamination issues. There is no debate because pollution and
The convenience of bottled water is not worth the money, potential health risks, or the environmental impacts in the production and disposal of the plastic bottles. Bottled water usage cannot be regulated, but a lot can be done to ensure that the environment is pollution free. As consumers, we must ensure that we are conscious of the health risks involved when we drink bottled water as well as the impacts the plastic bottle has. Water is a precious resource, and there must be better decisions made to ensure it is not being wasted. Individual should save their money, reduce consumption of bottled water. and invest in reusable water
However, 80 students (59.3%) admitted they do not know water’s regulation; 33 students (24.4%) feel water bottles do have more regulations than tap, 16 (11.9%) students believe bottled water do not have more regulations and finally, 6 (4.4%) feel they have the same regulations. Though it may be surprising to some, tap water is held under more rules and regulations than bottled. This is because different organization regulates bottled and tap. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in charge of tap water and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water (Goodman 2009). Because the EPA regulates all public water systems, along with wells and collection systems, the EPA sets the standards for drinking water. According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, “tap water in most big cities must be disinfected, filtered to remove pathogens, and tested for Cryptosporidium and giardia viruses. Bottled water does not have to be” (Postman 2016). Knowing this proves the fact that bottled water may not be healthier than tap. The Natural Resource Defense Council has determined “25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle–sometimes further treated, sometimes not” (Postman 2016). It can then be assumed, consumers may be misinformed about the quality of bottled water. Besides, water regulations, the majority of the students (105) were aware that bottled
Drinking water filtration systems are quickly rising in popularity as purified water has become big business. Water filters are everywhere, and they come in all sizes, from filters for one gallon to those cleaning water for an entire house. The bottled water market is growing as people concerned about the safety of the water they drink trust water companies to provide them with the service of drinking water filtration and a filtered product that's worth the price. However, it has been proven that tap water, particularly in cities, is full of contaminants that are not healthy to consume. But bottled drinking water is not the solution to the problem of contamination. The industry is not well-regulated, and most bottled water is no healthier than
Tap water should be considered a gift to citizens from their government. It provides a necessity that all humans need. However, the US government has been recently negligent about the tap water being distributed to the people. The water contains several contaminants including chemical ones that pose severe health risks. Thus, this once given gift is a sword with two sharp ends, and people must be weary of what they’re drinking and the quantity. Tap water dates back to the early 1930’s and no serious regulation has been introduced since. The U.S government must regulate and look into tap water health risks as severe illness cases have been reported ranging from the common flu to various fatal cancer diseases.
Have you ever had any concerns about bottled water? Do you think that bottled water consumption should be banned? Bottled water is water packed in plastic containers and sold for human consumption (Health Canada, 2013). Currently, the amount of bottled water consumed has increased considerably since many people feel it is safer drinking bottled water than tap water (Parent and Wrong, 2014). According to The Statistics Portal, the global sale of bottled water took a leap from 161, 589 to 181, 608 liters from 2009 to 2011. Only in the United States, each American citizen consumed around 32 gallons of bottled water in 2013, thus meaning an equivalent growth of 15, 94% over 2009 (The Statistics Portal, 2014). In fact, due to good portability, bottled water has been helpful in both simple and complex situations such as daily exercises and natural disasters. Even though having those few considerable advantages, bottled water still have been less beneficial; especially due to the negative impacts in the socio-economic, health and environmental fields.