LETTER: Attacking the Bottled Water Lobby

To the editors:

Vice President of Communications at the International Bottled Water Association and former big tobacco lobbyist Tom J. Lauria’s defense of bottled water and its role on college campuses is nothing more than an industry lobbyist’s attempt to push a non-essential use of our most essential resource onto college campuses. As a student activist who has lead a successful bottled water-free campus campaign with Think Outside the Bottle for Seattle University, I know firsthand that this initiative is good for the environment, for democracy, and for our public water systems.

Furthermore, Mr. Lauria misstates the purpose of this growing student movement. Our goal is to challenge corporate control of water and to promote, protect, and ensure funding for strong public water systems.

Why? Water is a basic human right, not a high-priced commodity. Through misleading marketing and enormous advertising budgets, Mr. Lauria’s clients (e.g. Nestlé) have attempted to convince students and communities that the only place to get clean, safe water is from a bottle.

But the fact is, bottled water is less regulated than tap and up to half of it comes from our public water systems, sold back to us at thousands of times the price!

Perhaps most disturbing is the corporate water grab. Corporations like Nestlé are pumping an estimated 1,862,486,080 gallons of fresh water every year and have even engaged five states in legal battles over water rights. In the process, they are taking away local communities’ rights to their own water, draining watersheds, and using up to 2000 times more energy than our public water systems would.

That’s why students across the country are turning the tide on decades of misleading marketing and starting to Think Outside the Bottle.

At Seattle U, once students became educated about the social and environmental impacts of bottled water, there was overwhelming support for the campaign. In fact, our bottled water consumption declined by 50 percent without even placing a ban.

Since launching the campaign in 2007, I watched Seattle U’s student body transform as students collaborated and worked towards creating a sustainable campus. Most importantly, I saw the capacity of our generation to make a difference.

Right now schools all around the nation are building this movement; already, nine campuses in the U.S. (including fellow Ivy Leaguer Brown) have some type of “water ban” on their campuses, and dozens more are launching new campaigns every year. The Crimson Staff had it right: Harvard University should join us.

Spencer L. Black

Seattle, Wash.

Oct. 26, 2010

Spencer Black is a fourth year Environmental Studies with Specialization in Natural Sciences student at Seattle University. He is the founding president of the Natural Leaders Club of Seattle U and the student campaign organizer for Corporate Accountability International.