Local News

You have undoubtedly seen the debate featured on your local news, read it in the newspaper or heard it mentioned on the radio. Is tap water safe to drink? Isn’t bottled water healthier? Who regulates them and is there any difference?

Bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, while municipal/tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Although they may be regulated by different agencies, extensive research has proven that both are generally safe to consume.

In fact, as much as 40 percent of bottled water is actually “bottled” tap water, according to the Food and Water Watch Organization. The age-old debate of tap vs. bottled water all boils down to two factors- saving money and the environment. Why pay two to four times the price of gasoline for what is free?

Americans spend $11 billion each year purchasing bottled water products, second only to caffeinated drinks. This means approximately 215 bottles are consumed per person every year, for a total of 66 billion bottles of water. These empty bottles create mountains of garbage in local landfills and take over 700 years to decompose. Only one in every 10 bottles is recycled.  Plus, more energy is used to manufacture, store and transport bottled water.

So next time you feel the need to quench your thirst, think twice about buying that expensive bottled water with the fancy name and beautiful packaging. You can get the same result from the tap without buying into all the hype.

To learn more about your local tap water, visit the EPA’s site and search for your city at

http://water.epa.gov/drink/local/

It may be known by a multitude of names, including the loo, can, head, john, privy, potty, throne, latrine, outhouse, commode, lavatory, washroom or personal library. But whatever you choose to call it, Americans use their toilets an average of six times daily and spend three years of their lives atop their personal stool. It’s hard for those in developed nations to imagine life without it- but that’s the reality for 2.6 billion people. Forty percent of the world’s population does not have access to plumbing infrastructure.

To highlight this growing problem, the World Toilet Organization (WTO) of Singapore declared November 19 World Toilet Day. The advocacy group calls its approach, “a unique mix of humor and serious facts.” The WTO has partnered with dozens of global organizations to create more awareness during the 2011 celebration, including The Gates Foundation, Unicef, International Federation of Red Cross, World Vision and Habitat for Humanity.

Eighty-five percent of leaks in residential plumbing systems are found in toilets. One leaking toilet can waste 200 gallons of water per day, or 73,000 gallons a year. On average, leaks can account for 10,000 gallons of water wasted in one home every year, which is enough to fill an average backyard swimming pool.

“Don’t flush money down the drain by ignoring a leaky toilet,” says Bill Palmer, president of American Leak Detection. “Just like homeowners change the battery in fire alarms once a year, we encourage them to use the food coloring test to determine if their toilets are leaking and wasting water. Responding to leaking toilets can save up to 25 percent on water bills annually.”

One way to learn if you have a toilet leak is to place a drop of food coloring in the toilet tank. If the color shows up in the bowl within 15 minutes without flushing, you have a leak. But make sure to flush immediately after this experiment to avoid staining the tank. Contact your local American Leak Detection location for more information or for a complete home plumbing inspection.