||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BUT IT MAKES YOU LOOK SO SENSITIVE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS. . .
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY Around the world, factories are using more
than 18 million barrels of oil and up to 130 billion gallons of fresh
water a year to create something that, by and large, most people don't
need. But the product is so amazingly popular that sales are going up 10
percent a year, just like clockwork. The big success story? Bottled
water. And the resources mentioned above are just to make the plastic
containers.
Another 41 billion gallons of water is then used to fill them water
that is often just tap water, and other times has less frequent
monitoring for safety or purity than if it had come out of a tap.
"Bottled water has become an incredibly big business, up to $100 billion
per year," said Todd Jarvis, an assistant professor in the Water
Resources Graduate Program at Oregon State University, and a research
hydrogeologist with the OSU Institute for Water and Watersheds. "There
are enormous amounts of money to be made here. Some of the profits make
our business majors blush, and everyone wants in. It's just
astonishing."
Jarvis, who has studied the issue for 15 years and makes frequent
presentations on it, arrived long ago at a simple conclusion bottled
water is not worth the price, and the people buying it often have no
idea of the environmental repercussions. When his students learn the
truth about the water itself and hear about the drawbacks of this
burgeoning industry, he said, they often change their behavior.
"There have always been, and still are some places in the developing
world where bottled water is necessary for health concerns and relief
efforts," Jarvis said. "But in most of the world it was a niche item
until the 1970s, when Perrier spent millions on advertising, and the
industry just took off. It hasn't looked back since, and now in America
we're spending $20,000 every minute of every day on bottled water."
Between 1978 and 2006, the consumption of bottled water in America went
up 20 times, or 2,000 percent. Large soft drink companies dominate the
market.
With bottled water, Jarvis said, any past issues of health and safety
now take a back seat to convenience, taste, and perhaps most important,
trendiness. About 700 name brands of water compete for shelf space, and
tap water that originally cost maybe five cents a gallon can be sold for
$4 a gallon. Doesn't take a business genius to see how that pencils out.
The water itself, Jarvis said, is generally fine usually no more or
less safe than tap water, which in the United States is among the safest
in the world. Worth noting, however, is that community water supplies
are subject to fairly strict and constant monitoring required by the
Safe Drinking Water Act, while bottled water is considered a "food" and
entails much less frequent monitoring for safety and quality by the Food
and Drug Administration or individual states. Tests of bottled water
have at times found contaminants.
"There doesn't seem to be any correlation between safety and bottled
water consumption in the U.S.," Jarvis said. "New York City, for
instance, gets its water from a very carefully managed watershed and has
some of the best drinking water in the nation and also among the
highest per capita consumption of bottled water."
And some of the myths surrounding water, Jarvis said, need to be
checked. Spring water, for instance, is often touted as if it's
inherently safer or more pure than other forms of water when in fact
it could be subject to more surface pollution because of the engineering
difficulties associated with securing a source that is a spring-based or
shallow well supply. Water from deep wells like that often used for
municipal water supplies could be of the same or better quality than
water from springs. . .
But before people get too carried away with visions of pristine water
from a sparkling aquifer or mountain stream, Jarvis said, they should be
aware that 25-40 percent of what is on store shelves is just tap water
that has undergone additional treatment or had minerals added at the
bottling plant.
"If people still want to drink bottled water, I usually recommend
purified water, 'rain' water or well water from a nearby local source to
provide the best combination of purity and environmental sensitivity,"
Jarvis said. "But a reasonable alternative is just chilled tap water in
a re-usable container. That often removes the chlorine taste that people
complain about with tap water, it's safe, and it's a lot cheaper."
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2007/May07/bottledwater.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GREAT MOMENTS IN CODE ENFORCEMENT
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES - One day a couple weeks ago a man named Gene from
the city's code compliance assistance department drove down Alcazar Way
in Lakewood Estates and decided to send letters to some of the residents
telling them their lawns didn't have enough ... grass. . .
Take Mitchell Bryant. The pastor of the Old Landmark Cathedral Church
lives on Alcazar Way. His lawn looks . . . thirsty.
"You'd think they'd be more sensitive to the atmospheric conditions and
hold off on the letters," he said one recent evening when a reporter
knocked on his door. "I don't know what you're supposed to do. You're
kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.". . .
Rainfall over the last year and a half is way below where it needs to
be. One-day-a-week watering restrictions have been in effect since
January. Some much-needed rain is forecast for this weekend, but that's
probably not going to change the dusty, decidedly un-green lawns not
just in Lakewood Estates but all over the city and state.
Say the code compliance folks: We get it. We just want to help.
"In a tough time like this, with the drought, we really, truly do try to
work with residents," said Todd Yost, the assistant director at the
city's code compliance assistance department. "But at the same time we
want to try to figure out how to keep that dust down and cover that
dirt. There will not be a fine."
The letter went out to a lot of people, and all over the city, not just
Lakewood Estates, Yost said. It said things about "the conditions," "the
health and safety of residents," and making "our neighborhoods nice
places to live." It also referred to "bare dirt areas" and cited Chapter
16, Sec. 16-1064 (d) (2). The code says the owners of one- and
two-family properties must maintain a "herbaceous layer of sod" -- grass
-- "r ground cover plant material."
http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2007/05/city_yards_not_.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BUT IT MAKES YOU LOOK SO SENSITIVE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS. . .
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY Around the world, factories are using more
than 18 million barrels of oil and up to 130 billion gallons of fresh
water a year to create something that, by and large, most people don't
need. But the product is so amazingly popular that sales are going up 10
percent a year, just like clockwork. The big success story? Bottled
water. And the resources mentioned above are just to make the plastic
containers.
Another 41 billion gallons of water is then used to fill them water
that is often just tap water, and other times has less frequent
monitoring for safety or purity than if it had come out of a tap.
"Bottled water has become an incredibly big business, up to $100 billion
per year," said Todd Jarvis, an assistant professor in the Water
Resources Graduate Program at Oregon State University, and a research
hydrogeologist with the OSU Institute for Water and Watersheds. "There
are enormous amounts of money to be made here. Some of the profits make
our business majors blush, and everyone wants in. It's just
astonishing."
Jarvis, who has studied the issue for 15 years and makes frequent
presentations on it, arrived long ago at a simple conclusion bottled
water is not worth the price, and the people buying it often have no
idea of the environmental repercussions. When his students learn the
truth about the water itself and hear about the drawbacks of this
burgeoning industry, he said, they often change their behavior.
"There have always been, and still are some places in the developing
world where bottled water is necessary for health concerns and relief
efforts," Jarvis said. "But in most of the world it was a niche item
until the 1970s, when Perrier spent millions on advertising, and the
industry just took off. It hasn't looked back since, and now in America
we're spending $20,000 every minute of every day on bottled water."
Between 1978 and 2006, the consumption of bottled water in America went
up 20 times, or 2,000 percent. Large soft drink companies dominate the
market.
With bottled water, Jarvis said, any past issues of health and safety
now take a back seat to convenience, taste, and perhaps most important,
trendiness. About 700 name brands of water compete for shelf space, and
tap water that originally cost maybe five cents a gallon can be sold for
$4 a gallon. Doesn't take a business genius to see how that pencils out.
The water itself, Jarvis said, is generally fine usually no more or
less safe than tap water, which in the United States is among the safest
in the world. Worth noting, however, is that community water supplies
are subject to fairly strict and constant monitoring required by the
Safe Drinking Water Act, while bottled water is considered a "food" and
entails much less frequent monitoring for safety and quality by the Food
and Drug Administration or individual states. Tests of bottled water
have at times found contaminants.
"There doesn't seem to be any correlation between safety and bottled
water consumption in the U.S.," Jarvis said. "New York City, for
instance, gets its water from a very carefully managed watershed and has
some of the best drinking water in the nation and also among the
highest per capita consumption of bottled water."
And some of the myths surrounding water, Jarvis said, need to be
checked. Spring water, for instance, is often touted as if it's
inherently safer or more pure than other forms of water when in fact
it could be subject to more surface pollution because of the engineering
difficulties associated with securing a source that is a spring-based or
shallow well supply. Water from deep wells like that often used for
municipal water supplies could be of the same or better quality than
water from springs. . .
But before people get too carried away with visions of pristine water
from a sparkling aquifer or mountain stream, Jarvis said, they should be
aware that 25-40 percent of what is on store shelves is just tap water
that has undergone additional treatment or had minerals added at the
bottling plant.
"If people still want to drink bottled water, I usually recommend
purified water, 'rain' water or well water from a nearby local source to
provide the best combination of purity and environmental sensitivity,"
Jarvis said. "But a reasonable alternative is just chilled tap water in
a re-usable container. That often removes the chlorine taste that people
complain about with tap water, it's safe, and it's a lot cheaper."
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ncs/newsarch/2007/May07/bottledwater.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GREAT MOMENTS IN CODE ENFORCEMENT
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES - One day a couple weeks ago a man named Gene from
the city's code compliance assistance department drove down Alcazar Way
in Lakewood Estates and decided to send letters to some of the residents
telling them their lawns didn't have enough ... grass. . .
Take Mitchell Bryant. The pastor of the Old Landmark Cathedral Church
lives on Alcazar Way. His lawn looks . . . thirsty.
"You'd think they'd be more sensitive to the atmospheric conditions and
hold off on the letters," he said one recent evening when a reporter
knocked on his door. "I don't know what you're supposed to do. You're
kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.". . .
Rainfall over the last year and a half is way below where it needs to
be. One-day-a-week watering restrictions have been in effect since
January. Some much-needed rain is forecast for this weekend, but that's
probably not going to change the dusty, decidedly un-green lawns not
just in Lakewood Estates but all over the city and state.
Say the code compliance folks: We get it. We just want to help.
"In a tough time like this, with the drought, we really, truly do try to
work with residents," said Todd Yost, the assistant director at the
city's code compliance assistance department. "But at the same time we
want to try to figure out how to keep that dust down and cover that
dirt. There will not be a fine."
The letter went out to a lot of people, and all over the city, not just
Lakewood Estates, Yost said. It said things about "the conditions," "the
health and safety of residents," and making "our neighborhoods nice
places to live." It also referred to "bare dirt areas" and cited Chapter
16, Sec. 16-1064 (d) (2). The code says the owners of one- and
two-family properties must maintain a "herbaceous layer of sod" -- grass
-- "r ground cover plant material."
http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2007/05/city_yards_not_.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment