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Check out the new report from Food & Water Watch!

Take Back the Tap: Why Choosing Tap Water Over Bottled Water is Better for Your Health, Your Pocketbook, and the Environment

You can read the report here.

And pledge to Take Back the Tap here.

Did you know?

? Bottled water costs hundreds or thousands of times more than tap water. Compare $0.002 per gallon for most tap water to a range of $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon for bottled waters.

? The Food and Drug Administration regulates only the 30 to 40 percent of bottled water sold across state lines.

? The Environmental Protection Agency requires up to several hundred water tests per month by utility companies while the FDA requires only one water test per week by bottling companies.

? Nearly 40 percent of bottled water is simply filtered or treated tap water.

? U.S. plastic bottle production requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 100,000 cars.

? About 86 percent of the empty plastic water bottles in the United States land in the garbage instead of being recycled.

New Food & Water Watch Report Highlights Problems with Bottled Water

Washington, DC - Choosing tap water over bottled water is better for consumers' health, their pocketbooks, and the environment, according to a new report released today by Food & Water Watch. The report is being released on the heals of a San Francisco executive order banning the use of city funds for bottled water and a U.S. Conference of Mayors resolution to study problems with bottled water consumption.

In 2005, Americans spent $8.8 billion for almost 7.2 billion gallons of non-sparkling bottled water. Consumers drank even more in 2006, about 26 gallons per person. The bottled water industry spends billions on advertising that promises purity in a bottle while implying that tap water is somehow less safe, something that is simply not true, according to the report.

"Bottled water generally is no cleaner, or safer, or healthier than tap water. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water," said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. "Rather than buying into this myth of purity in a bottle, consumers should drink from the tap."

"Utilities all over the country spend millions of dollars to deliver clean, safe, affordable water right to the kitchen sink," said Susan Leal, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager. "Relying on bottles that use lots of energy to produce and are sometimes trucked or even flown thousands of miles and ultimately become a municipal solid waste problem just makes no sense," concluded Leal.

But just kicking the bottle in favor of the tap is not enough, says Food & Water Watch. Our nation's public water and sewer infrastructure is old and in the coming years will need billions of dollars of investment to maintain and further improve treatment, storage, and distribution. Each year we fall more than $20 billion short of what is needed to maintain our public water and sewage systems.

"It's time for Congress to establish a clean water trust fund that would give communities the financial help they need to invest in healthy and safe drinking water for every American and for future generations," Hauter said.

The United States maintains trust funds for highways, airports, and social security. Providing a dedicated funding stream for national priorities is sound public policy, explained Bill Holman, former executive director of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and former secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. "The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund has sparked innovative, community-based solutions to protect and restore water resources in North Carolina. A national clean water trust fund would provide similar benefits," said Holman.

Food & Water Watch is encouraging consumers to Take Back the Tap by choosing tap water over bottled water whenever possible and supporting increased funding for safe and affordable public tap water.

A recent San Francisco Chronicle series validated claims that the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights has been making for 10 years: the San Francisco Police Department is plagued by "a culture that tolerates or rewards the use of force."

For 10 years, we've been chipping away at this culture of violence through our Bay Area PoliceWatch program. Today, we need you to help us keep it up.

Last month, the Chronicle published Use of Force: When SFPD Officers Resort to Violence. The Chronicle set up a database to track incidents of police violence — something the department has never done. What they found was shocking.

Between 2001 and 2004, San Francisco police officers were the subject of more force allegations than officers in San Jose, Oakland, San Diego and Seattle — combined. Indeed, the Chronicle reported that "force often is the first option for these officers."

Why is there so much violence in SFPD? Because the department "lags far behind many other major cities in developing an effective system for identifying problem officers. And it has failed, over and over, to take steps to get these officers off the streets." The result: problem officers stay on the force, even rising to supervisory positions, and perpetuate "a culture that tolerates or rewards the use of force."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORT

We reached the very same conclusions about the SFPD — more than 10 years ago. That was when widespread community concerns prompted us to start Bay Area PoliceWatch — to document, expose and challenge police abuse.

In the intervening years, we have been a major force for change. We helped secure justice when officer Marc Andaya killed unarmed Aaron Williams. And demanded accountabilty when officer Gregory Breslin shot and killed unarmed, 17 year-old Sheila Detoy, who was not even a suspect in a crime. And supported the family when SFPD officers shot innocent bystander Vilda Curry in the street, in front of her young daughter. The list goes on.

<>Now is the time to press for a total overhaul of the City's police oversight mechanisms — and the just removal of those officers identified as repeat offenders. As the Chronicle report shows, the police department repeatedly turns a blind eye to officer violence. It's up to us to make the department address this crisis honestly. And the only way to do that is with help from you, now.

http://www.ellabakercenter.org