Water - Bottled vs. Tap

I've long been a proponent of the use of tap water over bottled whenever possible. This was based on financial and environmental factors, as well as common sense. It just seems silly to me how much of an industry has been built around bottling, marking up, and distributing something so freely available as water.

Yesterday's New York Times had an interesting Op-Ed piece echoing many of my concerns:

In Praise of Tap Water

Highlights include:

"This country has some of the best public water supplies in the world.... Almost all municipal water in America is so good that nobody needs to import a single bottle from Italy or France or the Fiji Islands."

"If you choose to get your recommended eight glasses a day from bottled water, you could spend up to $1,400 annually. The same amount of tap water would cost about 49 cents."

"The Earth Policy Institute in Washington has estimated that it takes about 1.5 million barrels of oil to make the water bottles Americans use each year. That could fuel 100,000 cars a year instead.... Add in the substantial amount of fuel used in transporting water, which is extremely heavy, and the impact on the environment is anything but refreshing."

"The more the wealthy opt out of drinking tap water, the less political support there will be for investing in maintaining America's public water supply."

I challenge those of you who only drink bottled water to a taste-test - your current brand vs. your tap water (try it before and after sending it through a filter like a Britta). I can't speak for other cities, but I think most people around here will be surprised. Boston's freshest isn't "Fiji™", but I don't think it'll let you down if you're drinking most other brands.

I admit, I drink bottled water at the office (we don't have a tap-based bubbler or a sink large enough to fit a bottle under) but at least it's locally-bottled in 5 gallon jugs that we re-use, so I feel like there's less negative environmental impact.