I love NY Water

Just to tell you a little bit about myself, I absolutely LOVE water!

I hear students all the time in my health courses ask, “How can I make water taste good” or “I know I am supposed to drink eight glasses a day, but how do you do it?” or “How do you get kids to drink water?”.  I have to admit, I am often stumped trying to come up with a decent answer when all I want to say is, “Water tastes AWESOME!  How do you NOT drink at least eight glasses a day?”.  And the only human who might love water more than I do, is my six year old son, Cyrus.  (For those of you who think I am making that up, here’s a copy of his Christmas list this year.  I think we can all forgive him for letting the Batmobile and WiiU trump the water bottle.)

I will admit that I fell victim to the bottled water craze for a time, like most people.  Being somewhat of a water connoisseur I picked my favorites amongst the different brands and settled on one that I felt tasted the best.  I realized then that the reason I loved that one so much is that it reminded me of the best water I have ever tasted; the water straight from the tap at my Dad’s cottage in the Adirondacks.  Delicious, pure and that perfect cold temperature that only water straight from a well deep in the earth can have.  I tried many other waters direct from springs and found that most of them were also good.  I considered for a time, making money by going to my Dad’s place, bottling up the water from the tap and selling it to people.  Until I realized that is EXACTLY what these other people are doing!  Obviously this sent me on a mini tirade to whatever environmental class I was teaching at the time, where a student held up a bottle of water and announced that their water was not “spring water” and that their bottle said “filtered water”.

Photo courtesy of Berkeley College/VIA

Photo courtesy of Berkeley College/VIA

After a bit of research and a few tirades later, we all came to the realization that that water was not even the tap water from really clean places that had great well water.  This water was just local water that was filtered again and stuck in plastic bottles to be sold to us for $2.  The fact that we also expended energy to get the water back to the exact temperature it comes out of the ground at will not even be discussed at this time.  A student then came to me with a horrible story he just heard and now he believed me about bottled water being bad.  He heard if you left the bottle in a hot car, chemicals from the bottle went into the water and would harm you.  He was therefore dumping out all the half empty bottles from his car.  He now knew those bottles were bad!  As he was telling me this, he pulled out a new plastic bottle of water and started drinking.  When I asked about it, he said he just bought it, so it was safe.  I couldn't help but point out the flaw in his logic, as he bottle probably did not go to the store in a temperature controlled environment.  Sure enough, we saw a water delivery truck.... Just as warm as his car.  Last I saw he switched to stainless steel.

Photo courtesy of Berkeley College/VIA

It was these arguments a few years ago that spurred me to try to get filtration stations on the campuses.  I was sick of wasting my money and seeing all my students waste money of filtered water when we could filter it ourselves for a lot less AND have healthier water.  Thankfully someone finally listened and the Berkeley community responded with rave reviews, getting them on every campus.

Cyrus with his new water bottle.

Today I was contacted by someone who feels as I do about water.  She was calling from “I Love NY Water” and wanted to see if Berkeley College was interested in getting involved in the movement to drink local. That is why I am reaching out to you.  So, how about it?  Are you with me?  Ready to ditch those bottles and BYOB? Take a picture of your water bottle, cup, whatever you use.  I want to see what changes my readers will make for their health.  Because if our water isn't healthy, how can we build on other Eco-friendly ideas.  We need to start with the basics!  Go out and make the switch to healthier water and a healthier you!