December 12, 2007
The Honorable Dennis Kucinich Chair

Thank you Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee for the opportunity to comment on behalf of Corporate Accountability International and our members across the country about the impacts of the extraction of groundwater by the water bottling industry. For 30 years, Corporate Accountability International has been waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions, working with people and organizations around the world.

Today, more than 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. By 2025, the World Health Organization estimates that two-thirds of the world’s population will lack access to water. We are at a crossroads of how this most essential public resource will be handled, by whom, and at what cost to our environment.

Over the last decade, corporations have pushed us further down a road where water has increasingly become a high-priced commodity. As the U.S. bottled water market has ballooned to $15 billion a year, confidence in public water systems has diminished. We consider this no coincidence given the tens of millions of dollars spent on marketing water, which most can have from their tap for a fraction of the cost.

Bottled water marketing is changing the way people think about water.  For example, a 2007 University of Arkansas poll found that, on average, young people buy bottled water more frequently than their older counterparts because they perceive it to be safer or purer than tap water. However, scientific studies have shown that bottled water is on average no safer than tap water, and may sometimes be less safe, containing elevated levels of arsenic, bacteria and other contaminants.

Manufacturing demand for a product that requires the equivalent of more than 50 million barrels of oil to produce and transport every year is deeply concerning. On top of that, when siting and operating bottling plants the bottled water industry negatively impacts ecosystems and runs roughshod over local control of water resources.

Corporate Accountability International believes that the best stewards of this resource are the local communities that rely upon it for their very health and wellbeing, and that water systems are best protected when decisions about how to manage these resources are made democratically, with full and authentic public participation.

Our organization’s members are committed to standing in solidarity with the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, Save Our Groundwater, McCloud Watershed Council and other community organizations in challenging the water bottling industry’s extraction of groundwater.
 
In the last year, there has been significant increase in attention not only to the environmental but also the social impacts of bottled water. Recent media coverage of this issue represents the concerns that increasing numbers of Americans have about the prospect of corporations controlling our water resources as a means for profit.

We are concerned that some water bottlers are using undue political influence and economic clout to gain access to water resources in communities across the country. In many cases, these bottlers are operating without regard to the impacts of groundwater extraction on communities and local ecosystems.

There are growing numbers of people reconsidering the role that bottled water plays in our society. Tens of thousands of people are realizing that the costs associated with relying on bottled water as a primary source of drinking water are not worth it, and are pledging to “think outside the bottle.” Thousands are realizing that our public water systems are a valuable asset worthy of protection and maintenance. Students, religious communities, city councils and mayors across the country are turning away from bottled water and back to the tap. Cities are cancelling contracts with bottled water providers in order to save money, reduce waste and illustrate to their citizens that they support their local water systems and will work to maintain them.
 
Thank you, members of the committee, for your attention to this important issue. We respectfully request that this committee conduct a review of our national domestic policies regarding groundwater withdrawals, specifically focusing on the implications of bottled water industry groundwater diversions on the health of our watersheds and the integrity of watershed management efforts. 

We ask that you support federal legislation that would provide public funding for our nation’s water infrastructure.

We also ask that this subcommittee work with other members of Congress to review other federal policies related to the bottled water industry, including: quality, safety and labeling regulations and oversight; marketing practices; and the environmental impacts of bottled water production and packaging.

Finally, we encourage the committee to take a leadership role in recommending the cessation of federal bottled water procurement spending in the interest of minimizing environmental and social impacts, and demonstrating confidence in democratically controlled public water systems.

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Corporate Accountability International, formerly Infact, is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For over 25 years, we've forced corporations -- like Nestlé, General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria -- to stop abusive actions. For more information visit  www.stopcorporateabuse.org.

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