Water and Our Trip to Colorado

Our trip to Colorado was outstanding! The high plains of the state are dramatically different from North Carolina and returning from there gave us a new appreciation for how easily we access water in the east. The climate is so arid there, that it is almost impossible to NOT think about water every time you step outside during the summer months, especially in August. It is imperative that you take water with you wherever you go or dehydration can creep up on you without even realizing it. With water bottles all around us, I thought again and again about the first chapter in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle when Barbara Kingsolver and her family cite lack of access to water as their main reason for leaving Arizona and moving to the mountains of Virginia. I wonder if others share their great concern for living in an area where you don't even have the rights to use water from streams on your own property unless you own the water rights to do so.


I've read much more about this since returning and will admit that I never knew that east of Kansas City, the Riparian Rights to water are dramatically different from the rights west of the same locale. What we take for granted here in the east (in terms of water access on our own property) is against the law in Colorado. Collecting rain water for watering plants or animals is not allowed as water is the property of the state and it cannot be diverted from draining back into the public water system. Such a concept seems inconceivable to me, but it is indeed true. I am grateful for informative websites that have helped further explain these rights and how they evolved in further detail.


I add this entry post to my blog because Kingsolver's book has helped me gain a greater understanding of one of Americas' many wasteful obsessions....drinking bottled water. Although I certainly visit soft drink machines much less than the typical American, I can remember deciding to select bottled water as a "healthier" choice, not realizing how detrimental the bottled water industry is to the environment. Within a country where our tap water is typically safe, clean, and appealing to taste, Americans guzzle more bottled water than any other country in the world. A recent report compiled during four years of investigating the bottled water industry, The Natural Resources Defense Council concluded "there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle, it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap."


Moreover, the amount of plastic that fills American landfills as a result of our bottled water obsession is mind-boggling. Environmental Products (EPI) is a Colorado-based proponent and leader of oxo-biodegradable plastic additive technology. They strive to promote the use of Totally Degradable Plastic Additives (“TDPA™”) technology as an environmentally friendly and practical solution to the world’s plastic waste problems. Officials from the Earth Policy Institute offer a tangible estimate of how much plastic is generated by bottled water -hungry Americans. "Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year." An article from National Geographic News offers additional information about this appallingly wasteful American addiction.


I fill my water bottles with Brita filtered water daily and wish that others would realize how much waste is filling our landfills for no good reason. Perhaps, the only reason that might convince SOME Americans to give up their addiction is to realize how much money they are wasting. Typical bottled water, which in most cases comes from a PWS (public water source), costs as much as $2.50 [U.S.] per liter [$10 U.S. a gallon], more than three times as much as gasoline. Many public officials are banning the use of bottled water by their agencies. I say, "Bravo," to such moves and hope that more public action gains a groundswell.