David Knopfler Blog

Somewhat political observations

Saturday, July 03, 2010

What price decent drinking water?

My tap water tastes of undrinkable chlorine (supposedly a health alert anyway) and is additionally, anyway officially technically illegal in terms of the contaminants it contains... I think it's over the line for nitrates. But plastic-bottles used for spring water sold locally is also said to be hazardous, and actually it tastes like plastic contaminants if it's not super-fresh refrigerated. Much of it anyway comes from a Nestle subsidiary apparently successfully sued in 2003 for $10million (out of court) for all kinds of un-speakables. To quote from Wiki...

"In June 2003, Poland Spring was sued for false advertising in a class action lawsuit charging that their water that supposedly comes from springs, is in fact heavily treated common ground water.[8] The suit also states, hydro-geologists hired by Nestlé found that another current source for Poland Spring water near the original site stands over a former trash and refuse dump, and below an illegal disposal site where human sewage was sprayed as fertilizer for many years.[8] The suit was settled in September 2003, with the company not admitting to the allegations, but agreeing to pay $10 million in charity donations and discounts over the next 5 years.[9] Nestlé continues to sell the same Maine water under the Poland Springs name."

Is it too much to ask in "the land of the free," to have a safe source of drinking water without spending $1000 plus the cost of a plumber, to fit it, for a water filter? And would it solve the problem?

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