The Real Price of Drinking Water
What are you really getting when you pay for water?
Do not be fooled thinking that gold or even diamonds are the most valuable substances on this planet; water is by far our most precious commodity. Crops do not grow, electricity is not generated, and manufactured goods are not transported without water. The theme to this year’s World Water Day, March 23rd, is “Water and Sustainable Development”, which is a fitting topic to address the issues many places across the globe are currently facing, or starting to realize. Everyone needs to access clean water in order to expand and thrive, and we are using innovative ways to do this across the globe, but in order to make the best decisions for our water procurement, we need to assess the long term costs and benefits.
Water from the tap may be the most cost effective way to go when it comes to accessing drinking water, but with the constant “boil water” advisories popping up around the country and the fact that the chemical contaminant list of 60,000 products hasn’t been updated since 2000, it leaves one to wonder: How safe is my drinking water? What alternatives do I have? After all, you could buy bottled water, have water delivered to your home by Sparkletts or Culligan, or even make your own water with a GR8 Water Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG)—the options are numerous.
Issues with tap water have forced people to seek the alternatives. Pre-WWI infrastructure, agricultural run-off, arsenic, cancer causing carcinogens, and pharmaceutical contamination are real threats to the nation’s drinking water supply and, in most instances, are allowed in your everyday tap water as long as the levels aren’t “too high”. The Safe Drinking Water Act as well as the Clean Water Act are regularly ignored by those running water treatment systems, and those who should be held accountable are rarely, if ever, punished. So faced with this reality, or given the option to grab a bottle of water at the gas station, many people are going to feel more comfortable cracking the plastic seal on a bottle of store bought water.
And they should feel comfortable…right?
The bottled water industry is regulated by the FDA, which is unlike the EPA regulated tap water industry and that makes a huge difference. The FDA does not require bottled water companies to disclose where the water came from, how it has been treated, or even what contaminates it contains. In a survey of 188 brands of bottled water, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found only two companies providing such information about its product to consumers. That must give you the warm, comforting feeling you’ve been waiting for!
So the question remains, “What are you getting when you buy water?” As you can see in the graph above, you could be getting a lot of different things, and at different prices. There has to be a way to ensure that your water is clean, but at what cost?
The graph provided draws its data off the assumption that a family of four, each drinking a half a gallon of water a day and the cost for a water delivery service, versus bulk individual bottles, versus water produced by a GR8 Water atmospheric water generator.
As you can see, over the course of just three years, the atmospheric water generator is the best option financially, plus, you don’t have to deal with all the storage, waste, contracts, and uncertainty issues that the other two options come along with. As a bonus, instead of just the 60 gallons a month of water that you would normally get for your family, the GR8 Water atmospheric water generator can produce up to 300 gallons of sustainable, 100% contaminant and carcinogenic-free water in that same month!
Tyler Sytsma
The Brewer Group
Sustainable Technology and Agriculture Manager