At a recent meeting in Ellsworth’s City Hall sponsored by the Lamoine Conservation Commission, a 2009 film called “Tapped,” about huge problems with bottled water, was shown. Concerned with the stubbornness of corporations in our daily lives, I was worried that a big company could drain “my aquifer” and leave me wicked thirsty. I learned enough to make me wicked worried! Continue reading
CONCORD, Mass. — Henry David Thoreau was jailed here 164 years ago for refusing to pay taxes while living at Walden Pond. Now the town has Jean Hill to contend with. Continue reading
Traci Kratzer
Record Gazette Staff Writer | original article
The Cabazon Water District has shut off the water supply to the Nestle Waters North America bottling plant in Cabazon. Continue reading DEBRA GRUSZECKI • THE DESERT SUN • JUNE 15, 2010
The Cabazon Water District on Wednesday has threatened to shut off the water supply Wednesday to Nestle Waters North America bottling plant in Cabazon, the general manager for the utility announced late Tuesday. Continue reading
The state may ban some uses of a controversial plastic additive as its first “priority chemical” under a new toxic chemical control law.
Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection is recommending that bisphenol-A, or BPA, be banned from use in reusable food and beverage containers such as baby bottles and water bottles sold in the state. Continue reading
By DIANE D’AMICO Education Writer (original article here )
ATLANTIC CITY – Atlantic City High School students lined up to drink water Thursday to see whether they could tell the difference between bottled water and tap water from the school fountains.
Students had difficulty doing so, and the test reinforced the intended message that tap water is the better choice.
“(Drinking tap water) saves money and helps the environment,” said senior Samuel Goldberg, 18, of Ventnor. “Some bottled water is just tap water.” Continue reading
Hello readers,
Climate meetings are taking place in Bonn Germany this week and next week. They are preparing for the next major round of negotiations in Cancun this fall. So far water is not even being discussed in climate negotiations. Negotiators need to hear from us that water is key to protecting our earth from climate change. Please sign the petition to the negotiators to make this a top priority issue!
By Joyce White
We did not weave the web of life,
We are merely a strand in it.
Whatever we do to the web,
We do to ourselves.
– Attributed to Chief Seattle of the Dwamish tribe
We in Maine have such an abundance of water that we tend to take it for granted, seldom questioning that it will always be here for us; but by 2005, an ongoing struggle had begun in Maine to ensure the continuous supply of potable water for all. Now, towns in Maine and worldwide are struggling against giant corporations for control of water.
Somehow we became persuaded that purchased bottled water is better than free tap water. The “spring water” description implied by several bottling companies probably helped convince people that bottled water must be better – although we’ve since learned that most “spring water” comes from the same sources as public drinking water and that all those plastic water bottles are an environmental nightmare.
Jim Wilfong is the person most responsible for publicizing the complex issues of water in Maine. Four years on the Natural Resources Committee in the Maine legislature expanded his long-term interest in environmental issues; and during his stint as President Clinton’s assistant trade secretary, he noted that good drinking water was always among the top three issues in countries he worked with. That led him to think about groundwater – aquifers – differently. In his previous environmental work, Wilfong had focused on cleaning up surface waters – lakes and rivers – and hadn’t thought much about drinking water and water extraction issues. Continue reading