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Natural Awakenings National

Chug-A-Lug: Pricey Bottled Water May Come from a Tap

Peter Gleick, the author of Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water, found that most companies are cagey about revealing the source of their water. “There’s no legal requirement that they say on their label where the water comes from, and they don’t like to advertise that fact,” says Gleick. As a result, most Americans don’t know much about the origins of what we spend $11 billion a year on.

In order to be called “spring water”, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a product has to be either “collected at the point where water flows naturally to the Earth’s surface or from a borehole that taps into the underground source.” Other terms aren’t regulated. Gleick found that about 55 percent of bottled waters are spring water. The other 45 percent is mostly treated tap water, including Aquafina (Pepsi) and Dasani (Coke).


Source: Mother Jones

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