Environmentalists and City Officials Concerned Over Effects Of Plastic Water Bottles

None by Eric Ray

(KCPW News) The use of bottled water, while convenient, has become the target of both environmentalists and politicians nationwide. Experts say the convenience of those bottles isn't balanced by the harm they pose to the environment.

Jeff Niermeyer, Deputy Director of Salt Lake Public Utilities, says the production of bottles, to filling them, to delivering them means each bottle of water has a greenhouse gas footprint. And the impacts continue once the bottles are disposed of. Ninety percent of empty water bottles don't get recycled. Instead they end up as pollution or in landfills. Niermeyer says over time the bottles degrade and leak harmful chemicals into the ground.

While many politicians are currently trying to educate the public about the dangers of water bottles, Niermeyer believes it's only a matter of time before the push for awareness translates into regulations.

Niermeyer says tap water in Salt Lake City costs about 82-cents for 750 gallons. The American Waterworks Association supports a program called "Only Tap Water Delivers" which aims to educate the public that nearly every home in America has high quality drinking water available.

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