A watery revolt in Boston Harbor

I used to drink it, but then it occurred to me that it is wasteful to use all that plastic and transport the water from place to place. I have no problem drinking out of a water fountain in a public place. After all, it's what we all did for so many years before bottled water came into vogue.

If anything, tap water has less chemicals than bottled water. Bottled water is a waste of money. If you are that concerned about drinking water that is not filtered, buy a Brita filter for your tap at home.

The tap water in the town I live in is poisonous, and I live in an affluent town, Newton, MA. It is contaminated with rust from old piping, bateria of all kinds - it is cloudy and smelly like sewage. I get flyers every other month from the city of Newton to make sure I boil the water before using. It leaves rust rings on my procelain bathtub. I can not drink the Newton water without endangering my life. Why don't the JP freaks clean the Newton water pipes, so I can drink it again.
Until such time, I spend $30 a month on bottled water so I won't die or get cancer from the tap "water".

There is no credible scientific evidence that supports the use of highly overpriced bottled water in lieu of water available from most, if not all, municipalities. An effective selling job by bottled water suppliers and vendors has hoodwinked too many of the more money than brains crowd.

We have been feeding our baby on the water from Somerville taps (through a Britta filter) from when he was a month old. And there's nothing wrong with him.

I only drink bottled water when I have no other choice (very rare). I have invested in a good stainless steel water bottle and fill from my tap. It goes almost everywhere with me. I consider it a very good $25 investment.

I only drink bottled water when it's the only thing available besides soda, and I'm too thirsty to pass anything up. I've been drinking tap water in eastern Massachusetts my entire life, and I don't know why people have any issues with it.

Bottled water is a scam and a detriment to our environment. It's time to give it up. Get a Brita filter if you're really concerned about your water quality.

The only time I drink bottled water is when I'm at like the movies as I don't drink soda and I forgot my personal water bottle. I should be better about asking for a cup and filling it at the water fountain or from the concession tap. For meetings, I don't provide bottled water and think that using a paper cup for the tap is better then having bottled water.

This is a writer for the Boston Globe and she has no idea the reasons behind the Boston Tea Party. They didn't dump the tea because it was overpriced, in fact it was the complete opposite, it was too inexpensive and undercutting local merchants. Before you try and we witty, open a freaking history book.

The only time I drink bottled water is when I'm at like the movies as I don't drink soda and I forgot my personal water bottle. I should be better about asking for a cup and filling it at the water fountain or from the concession tap. For meetings, I don't provide bottled water and think that using a paper cup for the tap is better then having bottled water.

people are starting to think for themselves, and they finally figured it was that no -one was drinking the mind numbing fluoride anymore..LOL. JOking ..

Bottled water became popular because of the minerals in certain water. polish water doesn't have any. Use filter and drink some mineral.

The water is tested and treated at the municipal distribution plants, BUT its NOT tested from the plants to the households. This is where the water gets contaminated. Leaking fuel tanks from gasoline stations and illegal dumping of waste can seep into the soil and infiltrate the underground water pipes leading to households. Your "Town Water Supply" (at the plant facility) can be safe, but the water entering your house may not be.

I have a filter inside my fridge and usually use that. I dont really drink from the sink faucet.

They really should worry less about how much those companies spend on advertising and more on the facts. Put up data on water out of the faucet verses bottled. Offer free faucet test results. etc....

what a bunch of BS - Don't you realize the value of bottled water? Clean, potable water in bottles is a great scientific achievement - as long as you recycle them. - spear us the agony - why not come to a real protest;

New American Tea Party
Site: Brown's Square- Newburyport City Hall
Date; Saturday March 28th
Time: 12:00 noon- 2:00pm
America is on the brink of another revolution. In a new American Tea Party, citizens across the USA are beginning to protest giant government programs that reach deep into their pockets. These programs create huge economic burdens on American families and threaten their livelihood now and into the future.

People have to show that they're not going to take it anymore!

Here is what they did in Cincinnati last week
5,000 Gather to Protest Obama Spending Policy
The biggest New American Tea Party protest rally yet took place at Fountain Square in Cincinnati on Sunday. Police estimated the crowd to number about 5000 people, which may make the Tea Party protest the biggest in Cincinnati since the Vietnam War.
As with previous New American Tea Party protests, the people gathered in Fountain Square were angry at the Obama administrations plans to spend money on stimulus programs and bailouts of failing corporations. People carried signs, hand-made, with messages such as "Just Say No to B.O.", "I'm Only 8 and Already $36000 in Debt", "The Audacity of Socialism", and "You Can't Fix Stupid, but You Can Vote it Out."

This is what is happening in Newburyport

New American Tea Party
Site: Brown's Square- Newburyport City Hall
Date; Saturday March 28th
Time: 12:00 noon- 2:00pm

What can YOU do?

Be There! Show Up! Participate! We Need You! Partake! Join! Engage!

Bring yourself! Bring your Family! Bring your Friends!

Commit to Action
1. Put the date on your calendar and Commit to this Rally!

2. The More the Merrier and the more effective!!!! Commit to bringing 10 concerned Friends to the New American Tea Party by hosting a pre-rally
coffee and sign-making socia

These people are very ill-informed. Of course public water passes very strict standards at the source...but once it passes through miles of old pipes to reach your house, that is when it becomes either potentially dangerous or less desirable in taste.
The other factor is chlorination. Unfortunately this topic is a "Catch 22", since we need chlorination to kill bacteria in our public water supplies, but we are now finding after decades of consumption that it can wreak havoc on the human body!
The solution? Using a quality filter at "point-of-use" locations to remove bad tastes, odors and chlorine. A higher quality filter will also remove any potentially harmful metals or organics.

Isn't this demonstration also an extreme waste of money? In times when people are getting laid off even from organizations like these, shouldn't they not be literally dumping away water into the harbor?

I also hear that this organization doesn't hire minority staff. What a joke.

I wonder if they have any idea that it takes 1300 gallons of water to produce a single hamburger (hydrate livestock, grow livestock feed, process carcass). By the looks of it, they should refocus their efforts...and Think Outside the Golden Arches.

I still drink from my garden hose as I did when I was a child. If you think that tap water tastes funny then buy a filter to put on your tap and save both money and the environment at the same time. Half of the plastic water bottles out there still end up in municipal landfills. And do any of us really need to read the nutritional content of water? Zero fat! Zero cholesterol! Come on folks, the next time you feel the need to know the nutritional content of water take a large brick and slam it against the side of your head......your not using it anyway!

Tap water is only safe if it is run through a purifier to remove heavy metals. Also, while it might be tested regularly, water that smells like chlorine is a major red flag. Remember, people once thought that drinking during pregnancy was safe too. Time will show that drinking water right from the tap has harmful longterm effects.

As long as your municipality dumps fluoride into your water, it's medicated, not pure.

The Quabbin and other natural, or treated, municipal water sources are beautiful and pure - in MA, we're all living on a couple of gorgeous (getting overly developed) watersheds and myriad acquifers; it's the skanky old gnarly pipes through which the water travels that are causing concern here. My folks, two miles away from me, up in the suburban hills, are fortunate to have their own well; their water is pristine, has no taste, is untreated, and doesn't contain additives like fluoride.

Do your research. As long as they put chlorine, fluoride and a host of other chemicals in the water supply, then the tap is not ok to drink. Nor is every bottled water. Buy only those bottled waters that are pure from a spring and then filtered properly without adding any chemicals. Or by a reverse osmosis system and attach it to your water supply at home.

My friends look at me strangely when I drink water straight from the tap *gasp*. I've been doing it for years and I'm as healthy as can be, fear tactics really peeve me off!

Thank God that this has become an issue, because I'm sick of the subtle pressure you get from (certain) restaurants and similar businesses to buy a bottle of water when you'd be fine with tap water. Now I have an excuse.

Bottled water is the biggest scam I've ever seen. It's sad that we drink so much bottled water while living in the country with one of the best public water systems on the planet.

To 123456, I grew up in Newton, it has the best water. Don't know where the heck you're coming from. For years we drank from the tap or the garden hose, we all grew up okay, never any problems.

I agree, put a filter on your tap if you are concerned and give up that bottled water. Bottled water costs around $1 a bottle, plus all the harm of the plastic bottles and wasteful transportation costs.

the tea actually wasn't overpriced... It was underpriced, giving a paticular company a monopoly. It hurt other companies, so the citizens of boston threw the tea into the harbor.

Most people don't realize that most bottled waters are just purified tap water anyway. I've seen recent studies that have indicated that in many cases, traces of things like prescription meds have been found in bottled water. You flush your old percocets down the john, they dissolve and get into the sewage. The sewage gets treated for bacteria, etc. then released back into the ground water, which ends up in your water supply and in your bottled water. So the next time you're sipping an aquafina and you feel a little bit more relaxed than usual you'll know why.

It is well and good if you can get access to town water. In my town it cost $10000 to hook up to the town water sytem. Well (ground) water must be good right - other than the high ph and iron in the water for which we have a treatment system, every year after the snow melt starts, the ground water starts tasting like salt water - thanks to the hard work of our salt crews.
So that gives us what option - Bottled water.....necessity more than choice
So maybe the people dumping water into the river can actually make sure people can have town water to begin with!

Talk about people with nothing better to do. If your lives are so devoid of issues that you have to turn your attention to bottled water... please... get a job, a hobby, volunteer somewhere, but ferchrissakes, grow up.

And as for fluoride, only reverse osmosis filters can begin to remove that. Carbon filters like those in Brittas don't.

So let me ask you all this. An environmental organization has the offer to partner with a company that bottles water. In its "due diligence" of examining that offer, the environmental group negotiated significant and serious concessions from the company, causing them to offset their water use, reduce energy demand and transportation costs, and commit to significant national work on sustainable water supply.

Should the environmental organization sign on?

Here is a solution...it's America - drink whatever water you want.

I like the electrolytes in my bottled water...
I like being able to buy water if I want to, or not if I don't want to.
It's called choice... so if you and all your friends don't buy the bottled water, then there will be less bottled water distributors. Good Luck.
I'll go with the CHOICE of buying a bottle of water if I wish or need.

People leave their empty bottles everywhere, you can't go to a gym or walk down the street without seeing 1/2 empty bottles on the ground. Tap water taste ok but I also like my water without chlorine or flouride. I agree with the other posts, get a good reverse osmosis unit (I love my Aquathin brand) and you will never drink tap water or waste money on bottled water again.

I never bought into the "bottled water" scam. I have been drinking tap since I was born and I am healthy as a horse.

Only in Massachusetts. A bunch of liberal freaks!

Lets protest by wasting water.....????

Yeah that is going to make me stop buying bottle water.

Tomorrow I am going to buy two cases!

At least they aren't 'teabagging' each other like the conservatives.

I live in Quincy and when my husband and I first moved her we were continually sick with stomach aliments. This cleared up AFTER we started buying bottled water. Do the math! I HATE having to buy my water but it's better than being sick all the time.

I don't want to drink the chlorine they put in the water for purification purposes.
The dictionary describes chlorine as, "a halogen element, a heavy, greenish-yellow, incombustible, water-soluble, poisonous gas that is highly irritating to the respiratory organs, obtained chiefly by electrolysis of sodium chloride brine: used for water purification". I don't like the taste of tap water either so I drink water from a Multi Pure water filter.

what is this? Over priced water bottle, but they can afford to dump it to the ocean, nice! What a hypocrit!

Thanks for reminding me I had some bottled water in my fridge. I just drank some in honor of this article.

To those who were dumping bottled water into Boston Harbor today - how about going to work and being a productive member of society? Go look for a job. Obviously, these people have too much time on their hands.

I buy a 24 pack of bottled spring water every two weeks. It tastes better than tap water and those bottles are portable. Most of the time, I don't even recycle the plastic bottles. I also am a big fan of those plastic grocery bags and use them to carry my lunch each day. I guess I'm just uncivilized.

Couldn't those bottles of water been given to a homeless person or someone in need instead of wasting them and pouring them out?

Well I drink bottle Poland Spring water, and you know what it cost's me 13 cents a bottle. 2 bottles a day= .26= $94.90 a year. I buy 12 36pk cases every 6 months at BJ's for 3.99. I have found my water bill has dropped by 50% by doing it this way since I started it in 2007. So in my life it is not a scam.

I live in Brockton and though the water is hard, once you put it though a filter it tastes great. I used to live up in North Adams, and though I drank it because I refuse to drink bottled water (too expensive) it usually didn't taste very good. I blame the pipes though.

You people who drink tap water are crazy! I have at least 500 gallons of bottled water on hand for everyday use--including all 14 of my Toto toiiets and for all the orange trees in the Orangery. And breathing the air here? Are you crazy? Nothing better than pure oxygen and a space suit to keep my body pure and clean.

The bottled water is going to be even more overpriced if people keep dumping it, according to the laws of supply and demand. Besides, after buying all those bottles, you might as well drink the water since it's a sunk-cost anyway and it would be blatently wasteful to throw it into the ocean, where there's plenty of water already!

To all of those who say, "I grew up drinking from the tap and I'm okay." Be aware that most cities didn't begin flouridating until the late 70s and 1980s.

This has nothing to do with liberal or conservative. I am a republican, but I drink tap water. I have a brita and I am happy. This has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with saving money

Just drink beer.

I only drink pure grain alcohol and rainwater. We must protect our precious bodily fluids!

ok if bottled water is wasteful,

WHY ARE THEY DUMPING IT INTO THE OCEAN AND WASTING IT?

the demonstration only created more empty water bottles. they better have recycled them, at least.

I also have unsafe water. Leominster, Ma sends us letters about every month or so advising us not to use the water and saying alos that home filtration systems won't do the trick.
something about parasites, bacteria, and the chemicals used to try to kill all that... it's hard to understand but they make it clear: don't drink our water.

Personal choice and freedom, two principles this country is founded upon. I'm so sick of liberal fascists who want to tax this nation into oblivion and will absolutely not shut up about the way you should live your life. And of all things to bitch about, water - give me a break!

The water is safer than bottle water,,, tell that to the parents of the children that died in Woburn. Tell that to the parents of cancer cluster areas that have toxic plumes in thier water reserve.. I have seen the inside of an old pipe, with sediment, sand, and other things in it. Not to mention, big brother forcing chemicals such as floride on us with no consideration for our opinion or want.

If I want to drink bottled water, that 's my decision and I have every right to do so- you are not going to take that right away from me. If bottled water is so over-priced and wasteful, then why the hell are they dumping it out?

I totally agree with RET: "Here is a solution...it's America - drink whatever water you want." If you don't want bottled water, fine but don't try to get me to stop drinking it b/c it won't work. How about focusing on some serious issues instead of this crap.

In other news, the water quality in the Harbor improved today to its best levels in years ...

Note to TB, I stopped drinking out of water fountains the day I saw someone spit in the fountain. That was what really turned me on to bottled water

Access to clean water is one of the major world wide challenges. We've done a great job in the US at providing clean water and it is a great indicator of our success. Bottled water is redundant, and it is not recycalable - it is only re-used in manufacturing as a lower form of plastic. I think whoever made the 500 year bottles should pay for their incineration. If your city water isn't any good then continue to complain. I've been filling a Nalgene bottle from the tap for about 20 years. If I'm that thirsty and they don't serve tap water I'll get a beer

Great article by the Globe on this topic! I am glad there is a growing awareness among our communities on the wastefulness of our American lifestyles, illustrated so poignantly by such things as plastic-water.

"123456". if your city spent less on their educational system, which is living on it 's past reputation, anyway, and spent less on it's preposterous, bloated new Newton North and worked on the city's infrastructure, i.e. the water pipes, maybe you would have drinkable water. You pay enough in city taxes, for God's sake.
Hey, Brookline too. Old, rusty pipes. High lead levels. I know, I lived there. Try to make baby formula with Brookline water.....

As the old saying goes "There is a sucker born every minute." Catering to people's vanity has made many people wealthy and even though study after study has proven that bottled water is a fraud, as long as enough people are stupid enough to believe something to be true, then it must be true, right?

Did they steal this water, or find a freighter of water to pillage and dump into the sea? Also, why didn't they dress as Native Americans ? This was not a very effective protest in terms of hurting the wallets of big corporations. If anything, I would say it was a misguided symbolic gesture. Let me suggest an alternative. Change starts with the younger generation so petition schools to install better water filtration systems and kick bottled water out of the schools. Also, kick soda out too.

The City of Cambridge has dropped bottled water and switched to tap water (with reverse-osmosis filters). The Boston City Hall still buys Poland Springs by the truckload.

This protest aptly draws attention to the fact that global conglomerates have successfully marketed a cheap, safe, public commodity to the public by playing on fears about water safety. A variety of social, environmental, and consumer issues are at stake with a simple thing like "bottled water": filling our landfills with harmful plastics, kids drinking from bottles that leak toxins, ripping people off with high prices, and corporate efforts to buy water sources and undermine public control of natural resources (a larger issue in other countries with fewer water resources).

Privatization and marketing of water is not only wasteful, but also represents a long term threat to the Peoples' control over precious resources that belong to all of us.

Posters who deplore and mock this 'liberal' activism apparently don't mind it if our state government wastes money on bottled water for employees. Perhaps they can't admit that they have been bamboozled into paying too much for water? Personally, I wouldn't take pride in paying $1-$3 for a bottle of freakin' water.

Bottled water is for the Elite. Tap for the people!

If they wanted to make it look more like the Boston Tea Party, they should have dressed as Native Americans.

I never have drunk bottled water on a regular basis. A Brita filter works just fine. I do, however, like sparkling water and seltzers, but that's more like a soft drink substitute than my regular drinking water.

Don't like bottled water? Don't buy it. Problem solved, no costumes, publicity stunts, or government intervention required.

You're welcome

Even as a Coca-Cola employee, I can remain objective. PET bottles aren't exactly helping things when reducing our carbon footprint. At the same time, measures are being taken to reduce how much plastic is used and Coca-Cola has been recognized as the leader in our industry to recycle empty cans and bottles. The "Give It Back" campaign is great and we encourage you to tell others how to get involved. Google the term for more info.

On one side, not everyone has clean water on tap. Here in Tampa, it's GROSS. I prefer Dasani, Evian and smartwater and that's what I order when I go out to eat.

If I know the restaraunt I'm at has a filter, then great. I will feel okay getting tap water. Until then, I'm going to look out for my health and consume water that has been properly treated.

If I'm at the gym, I'll bring a sports bottle which I fill with filtered drinking water from home. I personally don't stock my shelves with a case of our water beverages.

Bottom line: We can enjoy the luxury of filtered water, but we must be responsible for depositing waste into recycling bins.

I not only never bought nor drank bottled water, I convinced my friends not to!

However, I wish there were more water taps or fountains around.

Yeah Stephen, good post. There are times when bottled water might be a necessity. But, for the most part I think a lot of people are just too lazy to fill their own container. We do need to be more responsible about the amount of garbage we accumulate in our communities. It's getting harder and harder to find locations for new landfills. Want one in your backyard?

Did Al Gore sign off on this protest? Pouring water into the harbor is going to raise the Sea Level, all around the world!!!

Bottled water is extremely expensive: The typical 16.9 ounce Nestle bottle, as a single purchase, costs $1.39 in Maine. At the GALLON rate that water costs $10.38. Don't trust me, do the math yourself. In Boston, where the one liter bottle - the same 16.9 ounces - usually sells for $1.79 a bottle; the gallonage cost is slightly over $14.00. Many people will never believe that. DO the math. Nestle hopes you will NEVER learn that price. And what does gasoline cost a gallon? Tell all your friends what the real cost is. Walter

It's nobody's G-D business who pays how much for what! If I want to pay $1.39 for water, and I have $1.39, I'll buy it if I want! Screw you! The "Non-Profiy" organisations behind this "protest" are nothing more than employment sinecures for rich trust-funded liberals! Someone please write them and ask them to post thier saleries! You'll never hear back I gaurantee!
Need proof of what I say? Try this. OK, shut down the bottleing plants. Who suffers? The little guy, as usual.
DON'T BE FOOLED by these charletons!