So, Aquafina is tap water...

[cynatnite]

PepsiCo Inc. is the latest company to offer some clarity about the source of its top-selling bottled water as it announced on Friday it would change the label on Aquafina water bottles to spell out that the drink comes from the same source as tap water.

A group called Corporate Accountability International has been pressuring bottled water sellers to curb what it calls misleading marketing practices. The group has criticized PepsiCo over its blue Aquafina label with a mountain logo as perpetuating the misconception that the water comes from spring sources.

Aquafina is the single biggest bottled water brand, and its bottles are now labeled "P.W.S." The new labels will spell out "public water source."

"If this helps clarify the fact that the water originates from public sources, then it's a reasonable thing to do," PepsiCo spokeswoman Michelle Naughton said Friday. Aquafina water is taken from public sources then purified in a seven-step process.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070727/ap_on_bi_ge/aquafina_tap_water

[Horse with no Name]

1. LOL

I'm sorry, I don't know why I find this amusing.

[cynatnite]

2. It is funny...

I always thought bottled water was mostly tap. Our water tastes really bad so we use bottled water with just about everything.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Understand totally. Our water company sends us notices

telling us not to drink it.

[cynatnite]

14. Our water bill is horribly high...

Ranges anywhere from 35 to 50 per month. Water and trash. What's really screwed up is that the actual water use is usually pretty low, but they charge out the butt for sewer...twice what they charge us for water. I called about it and they said it was because of the recycling process. Eastman Chemical recycles the water we get and they get majority of what they charge for the sewer. It's screwed up.

[burrowowl]

3. Not only that

in sunlight, very quickly, the plastic containers build up bacteria and fungi, so not good for you and do not use clorox to clean your plastic bottles for reuse, toxic, AND those plastic bottles are made of OIL! etc.

[cynatnite]

5. I've never let anything I was going to consume sit under the sun...

do people still do that?

[burrowowl]

16. In stores, many bottles are located

where sunlight can hit them, even in a cooler. But even not in sunlight, the bacterica and fingi develoe anyway only more slowly. These plastic bottles are very porous people sneeze and Voila! surface covered with germs, better to put contents in glass.
And as I said, plastic is made of OIL, better to keep the plastics for stuff needed for medical purposes, etc.

[Tom Joad]

4. Could be worse. a rival lists the strange ingredient "soylent green" on its label.

who knows what that is?

[whistle]

8. Soylent green is people...we are drinking people in solution

[Tom Joad]

19. I wondered why it smelled a bit like my late great aunt.

[whistle]

6. Not surprising "aqua fina" in portuguese means water wasted or waste water

[genie_weenie]

7. Every time a bottled water post comes up I HAVE to mention two things

1) alwasy get a bottled water that is a spring water, it's from an underground spring or river which naturally filters it (assuming of course the company is blatantly lying)

and

2) if anyone thinks tap is just fine, do a search on Camp Lejeune + water and read...

[cynatnite]

9. I drank Evian all the time when I lived in Germany...

but it's too expensive here.

And we rarely drink from the tap or use it for cooking. It tastes horrible. Eastman Chemical, you know.

[genie_weenie]

13. Yeah, Evian and many wines were cheaper

than a 6 pack of coke, in France while I was there...

[Tom Joad]

15. not all tap water is the same.

[genie_weenie]

17. This is true, however,

I would not have wanted to drink the water served up to Londoners from the Thames prior to Sir Bazalgette.

I would not have wanted to drink Lake Michigan water when Chicgao sewage went into it untreated.

I would not have wanted to drink water from the Euphrates during my second fun-filled vaction in Iraq or the water supplied by KBR.

It has only been very recently that tap water has been considered reliable to drink.

However, having listed the above I do acknowledge concerns over plastic bottles and other ecological impacts.

[Kagemusha]

10. Posts like these make me fatigued in my private war against stupidity.

The water that comes out of the tap is not identical to the water in the plastic bottle, even though both come from the same source. For that matter, the water that comes out of the tap is not identical to the water at the source, because chlorine is added, for example, which affects the taste.

Right? Isn't this basic, basic logic?

[Ikonoklast]

12. I could have told you that years ago

Almost all soda and beer bottlers use a local water source, and filter it. I have picked up bottled water from Pepsi, Coke, Bud, you name it. If they have the excess capacity, they bottle water at those plants.

Bottled water is just a side business that blew up huge for them.

Funny thing is that the Cleveland municipal water that I use from Lake Erie is some of the cleanest water available, even more so than the so-called 'premium' bottled waters, acccording to blind tests.

Marketing, marketing, marketing.

[razors edge]

18. I don't care for bottled water but...

I have been in water treatment for many years as it pertains to remediation of contamination in one job and supplying clean water for boilers in my present one.

Chlorinated solvent are not removed from a normal municipal plant, unless they have been identified as being present at actionable levels, the problem reviewed and a solution determined, often taking years, or sometimes not at all. These are man made contaminates normally removed by granular activated carbon filtration. (GAC) Most of my work in remediation was in removing these contaminates from the water table after a release had been identified. Several years of litigation delays was the norm before any reclamation plan would be approved and implemented. Carbon filtration or it's equivalent is very expensive and not put in place until required.

Particulate contamination is another issue that is more a natural supply issue and dealt with in several ways. Settlement and floculents are effective but if the dissolved solids and minerals are below a nuisance level to pipe line plugging, the problem is normally considered to have been managed. Particulates that have absorbed hazardous chemicals and allowed to pass through a system without collection are more difficult to identify as a problem. These particulates have pulled the contaminate deep inside and do not readily give them of to normal testing. Gas chromatography pulls out most, but not all, depending on the test methods used.

I designed and built many treatment systems to collect and dispose of these, and other hazards like heavy metals and acids, bases, etc. I can calibrate and analyze the HP dual in 50 or 100 configuration and compile reports for EPA reporting.

The best filtration I am aware of is reverse osmosis, as a GAC filter is used to remove chlorine prior to membrane filtration. These systems remove particulates down to 0 ppm if need. We typically run 3 ppm average into our boilers for economical considerations. My current system produces 30K GPD, small but all the same tech is required as a larger installation.

All that being said, I am pretty sure these are the same filtration systems used by bottlers of water, soda, beer, etc. They do have an advantage over the municipal supply, but I still make my coffee from the tap.

[BlooInBloo]

20. I've drank tap water for 30+ years. I never understood why people paid for it. It's *water* ffs!

[cynatnite]

21. Our water tastes really bad...

We've also got Eastman Chemical right on the same river they use for tap water. They tell us it's safe to drink, but it tastes so bad that I don't believe it. The water may be safe, but bottled water tastes much better.

[BlooInBloo]

24. Possibly it's actually true in your case, but pretty much *every* pay-for-water person...

... says that, and on the occasions I've been in a position to sample it myself, I was unable to ever discern a difference. I think it's just a mental justification for pay-for-water-snobbery.

But possibly it's true in your case. I certainly can't deny the possibility.

I betcha the number of "eeew - Aquafina tastes bad!" reviews will increase astronomically now that the cat's outta the bag. Huh - I wonder why?

[cynatnite]

25. It could also be this, bloo...

Before we moved to TN we lived in Idaho and our water came off the mountains. Nice clear stuff and it tasted good. We used to live in Montana near the Bitterroots and that was the best water I ever had. I could see the through the ice cubes after dumping them out of the trays. There is a distinct difference between the Northwest water we've had and here in the south.

But then I could be just all over nuts. My mother says so. I can taste a differences in mayonaises, milks, tunas and a few other things. :)

[BlooInBloo]

26. Yes, that is completely theoretically possible.

[cynatnite]

27. My being nuts, you mean?

:freak: :)

[BlooInBloo]

29. heh! That too! :)

[burrowowl]

30. Get yourself a water purifier

either by the pitcher (Breta or other) or for the home. Will be cheaper in the long run and no pesky plastic bottled!

[dorkulon]

22. *Filtered* tap water...

I don't care where my water comes from, as long as it's relatively clean and doesn't taste funny--the stuff coming out of my tap does not meet those conditions.

[Blue_In_AK]

23. Our tap water tastes better than Aquafina. n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

28. Yeah, but unlike regular tap water, it comes with a FREE HANDY PLASTIC BOTTLE!

A plastic bottle that is just about fucking indestructible! Shit, man--- do you know how long those things last? :woohoo:

[BlooInBloo]

31. A truly grand hoax on all those who water-snob wannabes -- LOL!

EDIT: I see an SNL skit about it in the near future.

[ComerPerro]

32. funny thing about the bottled water debate here on DU... some of the very same people who

mock those who prefer bottled water to tap water (there is not difference, they insist) pride themselves on paying much more for food products labled "organic". Sure, organic is supposed to be better, but organic standards are only as good and honest as the government that backs them...

[rucky]

33. It's still a great drag name. n/t