This morning [4/27] the Mount Washington Green Club held a water-tasting. We compared the tastes of three bottled waters (Evian, Fiji, and Deer Park) with Mount Washington tap water in two forms (straight from the tap, run through a filter). Each water was labeled only with a letter, so we did not know which water we were tasting until scores were given and the comparison was completed. Here are the results (high scores represent the best taste):

The Mt. Washington tap water that was run through a water pitcher with a carbon filter received the highest score. Deer Park water, which is locally bottled, received a score slightly above that off Evian and Fiji, which are bottled in very distant locations. Unfiltered Mt. Washington tap water came in last.

So for the best tasting water (and probably the healthiest), we are recommending running our local tap water through a carbon filter. For our test, we used a Pur water pitcher like the one pictured here. They seem to run from about $10 to $30 and the filters have to be changed periodically.

We also want to remind everyone that besides being expensive (Fiji water is usually over $2.00 a quart), bottled water creates a trash problem. In the recent cleanup of Western Run, a large percentage of the trash taken from the stream area was empty plastic water bottles. Transporting water bottled in distant locations like the island of Fiji or Evian, France also seems like a terrible use of resources and probably contributes to global warming.

So we would like to encourage everyone to choose filtered tap water over bottled water, and locally bottled water over water bottled at distant locations. Thanks!

• Bottled water is not safer than tap water? In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water.
• Bottled water is thousands of times more expensive than tap water? Compare $0.002 per gallon for most tap water to a range of $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon for bottled waters.
• Bottled water creates mountains of needless garbage and contributes to other environmental problems?