Drink tap water, not bottled, city urges

Grab bottled water from exotic springs or islands, and you're trashing the planet and adding to greenhouse gas emissions from bottle production and transportation.

Heft a clear Nalgene bottle and you could be swilling water tainted with dangerous chemicals that leach from the plastic.

A drink from the faucet might get you wondering about pharmaceuticals and other contaminants coming from the tap.

So what's a health-conscious, thrifty, ecologically aware consumer to do?

City officials and grass-roots activists urged people Wednesday to turn to Seattle's drinking water and safe, reusable containers.

"It's easy to switch to drinking tap water," said Suellen Mele, program director of Washington Citizens for Resource Conservation, a nonprofit group. "There's no need for some high-tech solution."

Seattle Public Utilities' Drinking Water Quality Report 2007, released Wednesday, shows that Seattle's water is cleaner than most. Levels of fluoride, nitrate and chlorine were well below federal standards. Many pesticides, solvents, mercury, arsenic, certain kinds of plasticizing chemicals called phthalates, and other industrial pollutants were not detected in the water.

"We test the quality of our water constantly," Mayor Greg Nickels said at a media event at Westlake Center. "When we deliver that water to your home or work, it is clean and fresh and healthy."

The city's water flows from the Cedar and Tolt river watersheds, which are in the Cascades and surrounded by undeveloped, protected forestland.

In March, newspaper investigations found pharmaceutical contamination in water in major cities, not including Seattle. After the news reports, Seattle Public Utilities last month voluntarily tested its supply. According to preliminary results, pharmaceuticals, hormones and caffeine were undetectable.

The utility also does infrequent testing for lead and copper in a sample of Seattle homes plumbed with lead pipes and solder. About 2 percent had lead levels high enough to merit corrective action.

"We believe that the vast majority of the homes in Seattle have pipes that are safe for transporting water," said utility spokesman Andy Ryan.

Given the largely favorable water quality results, residents are urged to drink tap water instead of bottled.

Seattle residents slug down the equivalent of more than 350,000 pint-size, disposable bottles of water every day, according to the utility. The bottles are made from petroleum-based plastics and require fuel for shipping, cooling and disposal -- a total of nearly 41,000 barrels of oil annually, just for Seattle.

This spring Nickels ordered city offices to switch exclusively to tap water for drinking water at public facilities and events. Nonprofit and grass-roots groups are urging businesses, restaurants and residents to stop using bottled water with campaigns called "Think Outside the Bottle" and "Water Without Waste."

Recent studies from university scientists and the National Toxicology Program with the National Institutes of Health have raised concerns about the health risks posed by bisphenol A, or BPA, an ingredient in many hard, clear plastic bottles, including sports and baby bottles. The chemical, which can mimic estrogen, is suspected to cause neural and behavioral harm in infants and children, and possibly other ill effects in adults.

Bisphenol A plastics are sometimes -- but not always -- identified by the No. 7 recycling symbol. Some health experts recommend using glass, stainless steel and aluminum containers, or plastics labeled with the No. 2, 4 or 5 symbols.

DRINKING WATER SAFETY