Intro-Water 5.5.01

Introductions are in order before we dive in. Like so many other people, I was born in Council Bluffs - a fact that impresses none too many, but which is nonetheless true.
I was mostly raised here. I grew up in Crescent, went to Kirn then A.L. and found little obstacle to attending Iowa State University (the one in Ames) for the better part of a decade. I found direction, meaning and friendship at the Iowa State Daily where I honed my journalism skills for a good three years.
I am irretrievably and unashamedly working class, though my parents might be surprised at that since I spent so much time trying not to be. One day in college it dawned on me while reading Mark Twain that it was possible to be working class and a writer with something to say at the same time.
My politics are not so much right or left as they are pragmatic. I put working people first and advocate that if Council Bluffs is ever to step out of the funk it has been in since General Dodge sent the railroad across the river, we must be proud of what we really are and not in the pie-in-the-sky notions of what we might become one day if we can get the money together.
I am a post-modern product of pop culture. I draw ideas from a variety of sources. Rainy days and Mondays always get me down. A hot dog makes me lose control. I have yet to find out what good kohlrabi is. If you know this or something else I might find useful, e-mail me at gjerrett@nonpareilonline.com.
So let's get started with the basics and what could be more basic than water.
After a recent trip to the Council Bluffs Water Works to do a story on the annual skunky smell of the water, I was shocked - shocked at how clean the place is. Not passably clean, but clean the way you think of God's house as clean. You could eat off their gleaming water-monitoring equipment.
After a little research, I discovered that funky tap water is even better for you than bottled water. The nasty taste meant our water was clean. Spring runoff puts excessive organic waste in the Missouri and the extra chlorine cancels that out. The taste is a harmless side effect because the chlorine disappears as well.
I urge all to drink and enjoy city water. More imporantly, I encourage you to renounce those expensive bottled waters.
Here is why.
Evian spelled backwards is naive and if you think this is a coincidence, go to Ville d'Evian, France and watch them bilking the tourists.
Ironically, Evian may be the most valid exception to the bottled water scam. At least it comes from a hip spring in France. The average bottled water comes with no real guarantee of purity or health benefit because the industry is not closely regulated.
But let's face it, the average hipster who shells out cash to sip water from a clever package is doing it more for the bottle than the water.
How many people investigate their bottled water choices? They buy Dasani and Aquafina and never realize they are Coke and Pepsi products. Why add sugar and color to water when you can just bottle the water for your cut of the market?
More and more people get on the bottled-water band wagon every year, increasing the size of this market.
The bigger the market gets, the more brands of bottled water come out and the more people think there must be some real need to drink bottled water - a vicious cycle.
A recent survey from the National Resources Defense Council on drinking water showed 60 to 70 percent of the bottled water in the United States does not have to conform to any FDA guidelines because it is bottled and sold within one state. Do you think the bottled water companies are unaware of this?
The study (www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/nbw.aspexamined) examined 1,000 bottles of 103 brands and found that most of the water was of high quality, but one-third of the brands were contaminated. Not one or two brands, ONE-THIRD.
One out of three contained some level of actual, true-to-life contaminants: synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria and arsenic. Considering you are paying for purity, any amount is too much, right? One sample actually exceeded legal limits.
Only one source of water is tested under standards more rigorous than those observed by most bottled water companies: Your city water supply.
Your city hires people whose job it is to be accountable. They aren't in it for profit. When it comes to bacteria, cities test water hundreds of times per month compared to once per week for bottled water.
Cities test for synthetic and organic chemicals four times a year compared to bottled water's one whole time a year. And when it comes to testing for e. coli, fecal coliform, cryptosporidium, giardia and viruses, you can count bottled water out completely.
There is this assumption that bottled water is unusually clean and no evidence for it. One particularly nasty brand labeled simply "Spring Water" actually came from an industrial parking lot next to a hazardous waste site.
No one is really making sure you aren't swallowing the worst swill in the world from those clever, new age bottles that contain tap water 25 to 40 percent of the time .
So drink from the fountain, America. Not only can you save money, you can save your health.