Dr. Conca reports that Americans apparently want to drink clean water even more than they want to breath clean air. A new public survey and study was conducted in May by Nestle Waters North America on 4,756 American adults across the lower 48 states. The Perspectives on American Water Study, released yesterday at the annual Aspen Ideas Festival on innovative solutions in Colorado, asked the respondents to share their views on water-related topics.
The overall take-away from the survey is that ...
1. Clean drinking water is more important than clean air to Americans,
2. Two out of three Americans believe their community is vulnerable to a water crisis,
3. A majority of the public believes significant, immediate investments in water infrastructure are needed to avoid future water crises, and
4. The public and water resource scientists agree that climate change will have an increasing impact on access to clean drinking water.
This is a significant finding, especially in the wake of the horrible State-inflicted water crisis in Flint, Michigan and continued attempts to repeal many Obama-era EPA regulations on air and water. So much so that even corporations are beginning to play a role in supporting environmental efforts to assure safe drinking water. It is important that our tap water be drinkable and safe. It was considered almost a civil right as America built its modern infrastructure during the 20th century. But towards the end of the century we began to buy bottled water, or reverse-osmosis water at the supermarket, first for convenience, and then for quality (taste more).
According to the International Bottled Water Association, bottled water is second only to carbonated soft drinks as the largest beverage category by volume in the United States and is seen as a healthy alternative to pop (soda) and other packaged beverages. Still, this 12 billion gallons per year is quite small compared to the 9 trillion gallons of tap water we use every year.
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