Community & Labour Action

Canada: City tap water still the best choice

The Niagara Falls Review.

THE PARK IN THE CITY Committee takes exception to many of the statements in a recent letter on bottled water letter.

A recent public forum on bottled water clearly presented the environmental concerns about bottled water, as they pertain to the city of Niagara Falls and Niagara Region.

The letter writer did not attend this public forum where his opinions could have been challenged and shown to be inaccurate.

Companies are making huge profits from people buying bottled water. Their profits increase if people have doubts about the quality of local tap water. The public forum clearly showed that Niagara Falls tap water is the best choice from an environmental perspective.

Since the Walkerton water crisis, the regulations for tap water in Ontario are now the highest in Canada. Based on these standards, the Ministry of the Environment rated the Niagara Falls treatment plant at 100 per cent and the distribution system at 99.65 per cent, yet the writer cites questionable statistics from Toronto to create doubts about the quality of Niagara Falls water.

The letter suggests that the Toronto ban on bottled water will remove "the only healthy alternative for its citizens" because some of the infrastructure is old and needs upgrading. What it fails to mention is that the ban will be phased in over time, as infrastructure is upgraded. The proposed ban in Niagara Falls is also a phased approach, contingent on upgrades where needed.

It was suggested that the plastic waste generated by plastic bottles is not a problem since "55 per cent of plastic beverage containers were captured through the Blue Box program in 2007."

This still leaves 45 per cent going into landfill. As was pointed out by regional representatives, even when plastic bottles are recycled, they take up a lot of space in recycling trucks, and are therefore very expensive to transport.

The recycling program for PET plastic does not pay for itself and taxpayers in Niagara must subsidize the program.

Reduction of this waste would be beneficial to all of us in Niagara.

Regional representatives at the forum on water concluded, "In facilities where there is access to municipal tap water and drinking glasses, drinking tap water should be encouraged."

The Park in the City Committee agrees with this assessment and feels that the City of Niagara Falls would be demonstrating leadership by ensuring that the infrastructure is in place to provide water fountains at all major city facilities. This would provide citizens with the best healthy choice, namely tap water.

As a city, we should be proud of the high quality of our tap water and we should be encouraging its use. Frank Fohr

Park in the City Committee Niagara Falls