Bottled Water Tapped Out

"Tap Water's Popularity Forces Pepsi To Cut Jobs," overstated the New York Times' account of PepsiCo's weak earnings report and its announcement that it would cut 3,300 jobs. Bottled-water sales are faltering in the United States. At Pepsi, they led the way in terms of weakening the company's profits. But pretty much all of Pepsi's bottled drinks, from the flagship cola beverage to Tropicana juice products, saw U.S. sales decline in the third quarter.

People are increasingly opting for tap water rather than bottled water, or, really, any other bottled drink. In the case of water, though, the decision is based not only on price but on health and the environmental impact of bottled water. Another factor is that people increasingly are simply questioning the need to buy water when they can just turn on the tap.

Bottled water's increasingly bad reputation took another blow Wednesday when the Environmental Working Group issued the results of a study finding that two of the top 10 brands fall short of California's purity standards.

"The findings challenge the popular impression—and marketing pitch—that bottled water is purer than tap water," the Associated Press reported.

All 10 brands met federal purity standards. Joe Doss, the president of the International Bottled Water Association, called the study "alarmist." He said the study's premise was that contaminants in bottled water pose a health concern "even if it does not exceed the established regulatory limit or no standard has been set."

Well, except that two of them do exceed California's limit, if not the feds'.

Among the contaminants the EWG detected were acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, and chemicals used in making plastic. Many of those are also found in tap water, which many companies essentially just bottle and sell, but others probably leached from the bottles, the group said.

"In some cases, it appears bottled water is no less polluted than tap water and, at 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better," said Jane Houlihan, one of the authors of the study.

The two brands that exceeded California's limits were Sam's Choice sold by Wal-Mart and Acadia of Giant Food supermarkets.

Acadia is sold only in mid-Atlantic states and so is not subject to California's regulations. Wal-Mart insists that its own studies have shown Sam's Club water meets California standards.

Besides price, health, and environmental concerns, it could be that falling sales of bottled water are due to the fact that drinking the stuff often just makes no sense. Stopping off for a bottle on a long drive is one thing, since the water is cold and conveniently available. But buying in bulk and drinking bottled water at home seems insane, given the proximity of water taps that provide the same product at almost no cost. Filtering tap water makes it safer than just about any bottled water.

At Pepsi, sales of carbonated drinks fell by 3 percent in North America. Sales of water fell by "double digits," according to the Times. That includes both its Aquafina brand and its Propel product line. Propel is part of one of the silliest current trends in food-and-beverage marketing: It is "vitamin-enhanced."

Americans seem to be simply opting to get their vitamins directly from food, washed down with tap water. Good for them.

Water photo by Randy Son of Robert, courtesy flickr.