The bottled waters I recommend are spring waters local to your region

The dog days of summer are here and people are out and about, traveling and eating at restaurants. Consumption of bottled water is at its peak. The bottled waters I recommend are spring waters local to your region.

First, I only drink filtered water when I can. I carry several bottles with me in my car and when traveling for less than a week by car I carry filtered water from home. People who ride with me ask about all the water in my car, but it’s very dry here in the West.

When I fly I have particular criteria I look for in water. If I’m in the US I will look for a local spring water, preferably with a low tds. I drink local bottled spring water to avoid the high energy and climate impacts of transportation. The same criteria applies overseas but require me to do more research to learn what’s truly local.

Unfortunately the bottled water business in the US has been taken over by large corporations. Often you can only find major brands owned by Coke and Pepsi, particularly in airports. Typically this is city water that has been treated with reverse osmosis. Maybe some minerals have been added.

My issue with ro water in a bottled water setting is that it is more aggressive than spring water with natural mineral content. Therefore, and particularly if exposed to heat, it is more likely to leach phthalates from the plastic, at least in my opinion.

Also, I don’t like the taste of alkaline water. I think it’s all hype and tastes bad.

As for BPA that’s present in the clear plastic sport bottles. If these say BPA free they contain another derivative of the same compound, likely BPS. No better. I use stainless steel water bottles.

Finally, my favorite bottled water is Aqua Panna from Italy, packaged in glass. It has low tds at 142 ppm and a pleasant sweet taste. However, I do not purchase it due to the reasons cited above; ie: the energy impact of shipping from Italy. The same holds true for Fiji Water, great taste but not local. The bottled waters I recommend are just as good and local to your region. You can see my choices here. Buy these for great taste and minimal contamination.

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About James McMahon

Studied ecology at the University of Illinois, mountain survival at Eastern Washing University, Deep Ecology at Naropa, River Ecology with The Nature Conservancy and Luna Leopold
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