“In 2016, bottled water overtook carbonates to become the leading soft drinks category in off-trade volume terms, an astonishing milestone a decade in the making,” it said.
While the fizzy soda category has experienced an annual volume sales decline since 2003, bottled water grew every year over the last two decades, except 2009 during the depths of the Great Recession, driven by consumer concerns about the effects of artificial sweeteners and sugar.
In the four decades since the launch of Perrier water in the U.S., consumption of bottled water surged 2,700%, from 354 million gallons in 1976 to 11.7 billion gallons in 2015, according to the International Bottled Water Association.
Scares over possible water contamination have helped boost demand for bottled water over the last few decades, experts say.
But what people don’t know: When they buy bottled water, they are often times drinking the same water that comes out of the tap.
A spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association says purified and spring water must meet Food & Drug Administration quality standards.
The U.S. was recently ranked 20th among 192 countries that could have contributed to plastic waste in the oceans, according to a 2015 study led by Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineer at the University of Georgia and published in the academic journal Science.
Still, soda and sugary drinks may lead to an estimated 184,000 deaths each year among adults from diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related illnesses, according to a landmark 2015 study by researchers at Tufts University published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
Several recent studies have linked diet soda and cardiovascular disease and showed a correlation (if not a causation) between cancer and aspartame.
The beverage industry says people who are overweight and already at risk for heart disease may consume more diet drinks in an attempt to control their weight and the Food and Drug Administration has ruled that artificial sweeteners are safe.

Time Is Ripe for EPA to Lead on Drinking Water Issues.
East Chicago is yet another city with a lead-in-drinking water problem.
Unfortunately, drinking water contamination is only one aspect of the challenges the city faces.
The community—of which 90 percent are people of color and over a third are living below the federal poverty line—has been plagued by a legacy of lead and arsenic contamination in connection with the numerous industrial facilities that have been operating in and around the city for decades.
Against this background of soil and air contamination, EPA conducted a pilot study last year to determine if remediation of the soil would impact lead levels in the drinking water.
But it hasn’t offered any other immediate assistance to protect residents from consuming contaminated water.
Of course, EPA received our petition the same week the Trump administration announced massive staff and budget cuts.
In fact, one of the programs rumored to be on the chopping block is the Agency’s environmental justice program intended to protect communities of color like East Chicago that already bare a disproportionate pollution burden.
EPA Administrator Pruitt has an opportunity to show real leadership by standing behind the statements he made at his confirmation hearing and take action where the City and State have failed to do so.
Pruitt should act now.

‘Higher than acceptable’ lead level detected in San Marcos school water fountain.
Water tested from a drinking fountain at San Marcos Middle School contained "higher than acceptable" levels of lead, San Marcos Unified School District confirmed Tuesday.
RELATED: Drinking water shut off at San Ysidro schools due to high lead, copper, bacteria The drinking fountain, located outside the school’s gym, was removed following the results of the test, the district said.
"San Marcos Unified recently tested the water at three of our oldest sites: Alvin Dunn Elementary, Richland Elementary, and San Marcos Middle School," the district told 10News in a statement.
"Of the 15 samples, only one came back with a ‘higher than acceptable’ level – a drinking fountain outside the gym at San Marcos Middle, which was immediately removed."
Of the 15 samples sent out from the three schools, only one sample – from San Marcos Middle – returned with the "higher than acceptable" result.
The school district said they are currently having water tested at all schools in the district.
Bottled water was provided to students at La Mirada Elementary, Smythe Elementary and San Ysidro Middle School while repairs were underway.
Later in February, 10News learned that students from Emerson-Bandini Elementary were being given bottled water after reports of odor emanating from drinking water.
A spokesperson for San Diego Unified School District sent the following statement to 10News in February: "When San Diego Unified’s Safety Office received word of a possible odor in the water at Emerson-Bandini Elementary School, the department acted quickly by sending drinking water samples out for analysis and providing bottled water to all students and staff at the school, as well as to the onsite charter school’s students and staff.

Because the state data doesn’t account for the nearly 2 million Californians still relying on private wells or factor in contamination from Chromium-6, experts said the number of people with toxic water is likely even higher.
“When I shower my kids, I use to give them hot baths, but not anymore,” Gonzalez said.
“Now we just wash, rinse and get out.” The water that comes out of her Oakvale Park home is contaminated.
The contaminated water runs into about 100 homes in the area.
“It can cause cancer (and) in the case of nitrate in very high levels, it can even cause death after a few days of high exposure.” Her organization said short-term health effects of drinking uranium-contaminated water include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, as well as liver and kidney damage.
Water is shut-off to some 18,000 students at four different school districts as further testing is done.
“Having toxic water coming out of your tap, not being able to access water in schools, this is really basic.” Tainted water in wells and public water systems in the San Diego area contain unsafe levels of uranium, fluoride, nitrate and arsenic, according to the state data.
“Here we are in the 21st century in the great state of California, one of the largest economies in the world, and people do not have water running in their homes.” While the state has made progress in getting clean, safe drinking water to rural residents, Felicia Marcus, chair of California’s Water Resources Control Board, says there’s more to do.
Although more than a million residents are estimated to be affected by contaminated water, it’s not something on the minds of those living in California’s urban centers.
In Oakvale Park, Juana Gonzalez helps some of her less fortunate neighbors by giving them a ride to the nearest place to buy water.

2017 PRNDI Entry – Continuing Coverage: Toxic Water: PFC Contamination in Southern New Hampshire.
Entry note: An audio montage of this submission is featured below, in addition to individual stories.
In March of 2016, officials in Merrimack, New Hampshire learned a multi-national plastics plant may have contaminated the region’s drinking water.
Since then, NHPR’s Emily Corwin has covered incremental updates such as state-funded blood testing and new federal health advisories; she’s investigated the use of likely toxic perfluorichemical replacements at the plant; and told the stories of residents, some of whom fear their drinking water has already made them sick.
Scientific studies have shown links between perfluorichemicals (or "PFCs") and a variety of cancers, and the EPA has advised companies to stop using certain types of them.
Nevertheless, these chemicals remain unregulated by the federal government, and health officials in New Hampshire continue to tell residents the chemicals’ effects are not yet known.
Listen to a montage of Emily’s reporting: Water contamination features and interviews: 3.10.16: DES Criticized For Understating Health Risks Of Merrimack Water Contaminant 5.6.16: In Addition To Saint-Gobain, 43 Companies In N.H. Have Used Perfluorinated Chemicals 5.19.16: EPA Announces Lifetime PFOA and PFOS Advisory Level 5.23.16: Connecting The Dots: PFOA, Congress And The EPA 5.31.16 Emergency Rule Means N.H. Can Regulate PFOA and PFOS 6.7.16: U.S. Companies Replace Teflon Toxin With Chemical Cousin.
Is It Safe?
6.24.16 Merrimack Town Councilor Calls Water District’s Communication "Inept" 8.16.16: Last Chance To Weigh In On N.H.’s ‘Teflon Toxin’ Drinking Water Standard 8.24.16: Likely State Water Standards Not Safe Enough, Says Harvard Research Fellow

Flint Mayor: City Needs 2 Years Before it Can Treat its Own Water.
Mayor Karen Weaver wrote to EPA officials earlier this week to inform them that the Michigan city will not be able to treat its own water for lead and other contaminants until 2019, citing a lengthy construction and testing process for a new water treatment plant.
“Based on this approach, an August, 2019, completion date is anticipated for the treatment plant improvements.” In 2014, officials implemented a cost-cutting plan to switch the city’s water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River, which is 19 times more corrosive, according to researchers from Virginia Tech.
“The water would come in brown and my daughter was like ‘Mom … why is the water brown?,’” Flint resident Rhonda Keslo told CNN last year.
The EPA intervened in 2016, following studies that revealed dangerous levels of lead in the city’s drinking water and a class-action lawsuit alleging that the Department of Environmental Quality wasn’t treating the Flint River with an anti-corrosive agent.
These efforts include rerouting the water supply, replacing corroded water pipes and distributing bottled water and filters.
Lead levels below federal limit The EPA has also required that the city receive public input on its final water source and treatment plan.
The current proposed long-term water source is Lake Huron, according to Weaver’s letter.
The city will also select a backup water source for use in emergencies.
However, many residents still rely on bottled water, and the state still recommends that residents use filtered water for cooking and drinking.

No excuses for boil water orders on First Nations reserves – Michael’s essay.
In May of 2000, during a random test of the water supply in the farming town of Walkerton, Ontario, traces of e-coli were found in a shallow water supply well.
This was the result of cattle manure washing into the well.
People in the town started to get sick — with, ultimately, 3,500 residents falling ill.
A formal judicial inquiry was held to determine what had gone wrong with the system.
While all this was going on, thousands of men, women and children in Ontario and across the country were boiling their water for at least a minute because what came out of the tap was toxic, dangerous to drink.
In all of the complicated relationships and seemingly intractable problems between governments and First Nations peoples, clean water has to be one of the simplest to resolve.
Drinking water on reserves is a federal responsibility.
A year before, the number was 139 advisories in 94 communities.
In the 13 years between 1995 and 2008, the federal government, through Aboriginal Affairs, spent $3.5 billion.

CRS Report: ‘Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) – A Summary of the Act and Its Major Requirements’.
Click on the graphics to enlarge them.
Summary This report summarizes the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and its major programs and regulatory requirements.
It reviews revisions to the act since its enactment in 1974, including the drinking water security provisions added to the SDWA by the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (P.L.
107-188) and lead reduction provisions as amended by P.L.
111-380 (including amendments made by P.L.
First enacted in 1974 and substantially amended and reauthorized in 1986 and 1996, the act is administered through programs that establish standards and treatment requirements for public water supplies, promote compliance capacity of public water systems, provide technical assistance to small water systems, control the underground injection of fluids, finance infrastructure projects, and protect sources of drinking water.
In the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 (P.L.
104-182), Congress reauthorized appropriations for most SDWA programs through FY2003.
In addition to reviewing key programs and requirements of the SDWA, this report includes statistics on the number and types of regulated public water systems and lists all major amendments with the year of enactment and public law number.

Drinking water is contaminated in some parts of Whidbey Island.
WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. — The water that’s flowing through some parts of Whidbey Island is contaminated.
But it was only recently that Hovland, of Coupeville, learned her drinking water tested high for PFAS, a chemical compound found in firefighting foam and now linked to certain cancers.
The Navy has been using the foam since the 1980s.
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“If it comes in above the advisory level of 70 parts per trillion, then the Navy is going to provide drinking water,” Welding said.
“When you are worried, very, very worried, you don’t have room for anger yet,” Hovland said.
Several years ago, Hovland says her husband was diagnosed with prostate and bladder cancer; now she wonders if their drinking water is to blame.
The Navy says they are largely phasing out the use of the firefighting foam as they continue to test more areas for contamination.
“The Navy is concerned about their health, too, that’s why we have gone out and done this testing,” Welding said.

Classes canceled; water boil advisory is in effect.
The affected area includes Randolph Street south to the Platte County Line and U.S. Highway 59 east to Noyes Boulevard.
The area includes Lake Contrary and Rushville.
The order affects approximately 16,500 customers.
Customers should bring their water to a rolling boil for three minutes before using it for drinking or cooking.
Tap water is safe for bathing and washing clothes.
The St. Joseph School District canceled classes due to the boil order, saying in a press release “the advisory area impacts more than half of the schools in our district, we are unable to supply enough drinking water to each building in a timely manner.
“We decided it would be in the best interest of our students’ safety to cancel classes for the day.” The precautionary advisory will be in effect until water quality samples confirm that the water is safe for consumption.
Customers who have provided contact information to Missouri American Water will be notified via the company’s emergency notification system.
Customers also can check the Missouri American Water Facebook Page for updates.