BlueTriton, the company that owns Arrowhead brand, has been taking water from San Bernardino springs for more than 100 years

BlueTriton, the company that owns Arrowhead brand, has been taking water from San Bernardino springs for more than 100 years

California has ordered the company that owns Arrowhead bottled water to stop using some of the natural springs it has utilized for more than a century, following a years-long campaign by environmentalists to stop the operation.

Regulators on Tuesday voted to significantly reduce how much water BlueTriton – the owner of the Arrowhead brand – can take from public lands in the San Bernardino mountains. The ruling is a victory for community groups who have said for years that the bottled water firm has drained an important creek that serves as a habitat for wildlife and helps protect the area from wildfires.

Arrowhead bottled water traces its roots to a hotel at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains that first opened in 1885 and began selling bottled spring water from its basement in 1906. But environmental and community groups say the company has never had permission to take water from the springs in the San Bernardino national forest.

The state water resources control board agreed that BlueTriton does not have permission to use the water and ordered the company to stop. The order does not ban the company from taking any water from the mountain, but it significantly reduces how much it can take.

  • lobut@lemmy.ca
    16·
    1 year ago

    I mean, it’s a microcosm but I remember a friend in uni refusing to drink tap or Brita water. He’d just keep cases and cases of water by his mini fridge and just plow threw them.

    I got upset with my sister in law because she’ll buy bottled water when I had a water filter in our fridge. Hell, you can boil it if you’re really uncertain. She said there was stuff about chemicals and I said the plastic for the water probably isn’t any better for you.

    • Dudewitbow@lemmy.ml
      12·
      1 year ago

      But taking a shower in chemicals are okay? The mental gymnastics of some people.

      Tap water is also more regulated than bottled water too.

      • WhyIDie@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        I’m not defending bottled water, but in regards to the shower argument, there’s a reason things are rated for topical use vs food grade

        the better argument is someone drinking bottled water while using tap water to wash their foods

        • Dudewitbow@lemmy.ml
          1·
          1 year ago

          Tap water is regulated by the EPA, and bottled water is regulated by thr FDA (in the states). Both have to make it drinkable. EPA forces types of contaminents, intended use (residential water is designed to be drinkable), and have all water quality reports public after treating said water. EPA however doesnt regulate the pipes, so the flynt michigan sotuation came out due to that.

          Bottled water tests water at source and before product. Bottled water must label the source where the water came from, which includes tap…

          Unless the person drinking only bottled water actively reads the label to know what the source water is, its a very popr argument to avoid tap when the attempt to avoid it is half baked.

          • WhyIDie@kbin.social
            1·
            1 year ago

            I think you misunderstood what I said, I’m agreeing with you on the mental gymnastics, but the argument you put out wasn’t exactly the best when given to the PoV of the gymnast; they’re avoiding ingesting tap water in favor of bottled, but they ingest it regardless, unless they wash everything with bottled water like a very crazy person

            and didn’t expect to respond again about this crazy hypothetical person that lives rent free in both our minds, but I’m going to evict that person right now for my own sanity

        • Zink@programming.dev
          1·
          1 year ago

          Think of how many bottles of water you can get for $10. Anything from event prices to Costco prices, doesn’t matter.

          For $10 I get about a thousand gallons of tap water. I have a back yard pond, so I think in terms of bulk quantity cost of tap water, lol. Technically the sewer charge is about another $10 for that same amount of water.

          The water is pretty good, and tastes just about perfect to me once it’s run through the cheap filter in our refrigerator.

          IMO the worst part of bottled water is the plastic, plus the thought of shipping literal water around the country/world.