Bottled Water

WASHINGTON -- The federal government proposed yesterday more stringent standards for bottled-water labels, hoping to clarify for consumers the differences among mineral water, distilled water, spring water and others.Consumers are entitled to know the source of bottled water, as well as precisely what it contains, the Food and Drug Administration said in announcing the proposals, which become official Tuesday and are expected to become final in six months, following public comment. The actual changes in the labels would occur in about a year.

Baltimore City has a serious problem with run-down, antiquated school facilities. They represent a major impediment to progress in improving the education of Baltimore children and a drag on the city's efforts to shake off decades of decline. MayorStephanie Rawlings-Blake's plan to fund a new school construction and renovation program through an extension and increase in the city's bottle tax may not be the perfect solution, but it is a good start. The beverage industry has mounted a campaign of opposition to the proposal that borders on the hysterical.

It's lunchtime at Dulaney High School. The kids are grazing on pepperoni pizza and french fries and washing it down with chilled bottled water.Savvy consumers, students talk up the benefits of hydration, including water's zit-zapping and toxin-sweeping abilities. They drink it down during basketball games and band practice, and pay 65 cents for bottles of it at hallway vending machines."It's all about perception, and it's just cool to drink bottled water," said Cathy Haymaker, product specialist for the school system's food and nutrition department.

Baltimore city health officials have confirmed two cases of legionnaires disease at a Hampden nursing home. The two people diagnosed with the disease at the Keswick Multi-Care Center on West 40th Street began showing symptoms in September but are recovering, according to Brian Schleter, a spokesman with the Baltimore Health Department. The center is taking precautions by serving only bottled water while an investigation is under way. Legionnaires is caused by a bacterium called legionella.

Should their palates tire of fizzy French waters or the stuff that springs from Maine's ancient aquifers, discriminating bottled-water drinkers have another source: Baltimore taps. The city plans to bottle municipal water, which recently won a regional award for taste against several other tap varieties. "It tastes great and it's good for you," Mayor Martin O'Malley said this week as he announced plans to have a bottling company package the water under the name Clearly Baltimore. The effort is mostly about boosterism - "Believe" in a bottle, so to speak - and is not a serious attempt to enter the bottled-water business.

Exxon Mobil resumes bottled-water delivery In the wake of complaints from residents and state officials, Exxon Mobil Corp. has agreed to continue supplying bottled water to 97 households in the Jacksonville area, where wells were found to be tainted after a 25,000-gallon gasoline leak from an Exxon service station. The oil company had mailed letters last week to the households informing them it would stop providing free bottled water. A company official wrote that tests have found very little or no gasoline constituents in those wells, and Exxon Mobil now believes that high levels of contaminants will not be detected in the future.

To Thomas Pignataro, water never tasted so good. More than a decade after starting Brick House Farm LLC and several starts and fits with former partners, Pignataro is finally ready to see his Clarksville bottling company advance in the water market. With new partners, $700,000 worth of new equipment, plans for acquiring more land and a waiting list of customers, Brick House Farm is positioning itself for expansion. Only one other water company in the state - Green Spring - has both a bottling operation and a source in Maryland.

When it comes to bottled water, your readers should know the facts ("Maryland state offices going off the bottle," Oct. 1). While tap water can be a perfectly fine choice, it is not always readily accessible when and where consumers need it. Bottled water provides individuals with the opportunity to enjoy fresh, healthy water wherever they are. Importantly, our bottled water containers are 100 percent recyclable and are among the most recycled...

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration's negligence in regulating the bottled-water industry has allowed contaminated water to reach consumers and has created confusion over product labeling, according to a House investigative report released yesterday.Last year's worldwide recall of Perrier products, brought about by the discovery of unsafe levels of benzene, focused attention on potential health problems, said Representative John D. Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

Howard County water is going to Mexico and South Korea.Clarksville's Brick House Farm Spring Water Co. has landed its first foreign deals -- potentially worth millions -- to sell its bottled water in the two countries.The deals represent a breakthrough for the 5-year-old company's product: bottled spring water pumped from a huge aquifer under a Clarksville farm and sold under two labels, Taro and Brick House."This could be our biggest break," Thomas Taro, the company's founder, said yesterday.

When it comes to bottled water, your readers should know the facts ("Maryland state offices going off the bottle," Oct. 1). While tap water can be a perfectly fine choice, it is not always readily accessible when and where consumers need it. Bottled water provides individuals with the opportunity to enjoy fresh, healthy water wherever they are. Importantly, our bottled water containers are 100 percent recyclable and are among the most recycled...

"Do you remember," the invitation begins, "picking up trash outside of an event just as the Governor was pulling up in his car? "Calling the State Police for directions when late for a press conference and horribly lost? "Using a cell phone the size of your head? "Making sure that the Governor/Lt.Governor/Cabinet Secretary had a clean place for a 'pit stop' before your press event?" "Having your Secretary arrive without his/her speech and blaming YOU? "Remembering to take skim milk to an interview for the Governor's coffee?

Whatever the pressures of his city law practice, Robert Lazzaro could count on finding refuge at the end of the day at his home in Jacksonville, where the back deck offered quiet, a hot tub and a woodland view. That changed five years ago after an Exxon station less than a mile away leaked about 25,000 gallons of regular unleaded gasoline into the groundwater, contaminating dozens of wells and casting a shadow of fear over the small community in northern Baltimore County. "It's a constant worry, it's a constant stressor," said Lazzaro.

Whatever the pressures of his city law practice, Robert Lazzaro could count on finding refuge at the end of the day at his home in Jacksonville, where the back deck offered quiet, a hot tub and a woodland view. That changed five years ago after an Exxon station less than a mile away leaked about 25,000 gallons of regular unleaded gasoline into the groundwater, contaminating dozens of wells and casting a shadow of fear over the small community in northern Baltimore County. "It's a constant worry, it's a constant stressor," said Lazzaro.

Today, we're introducing a new weekly feature: "When headlines go wrong. " Each week, we'll scour the net to find those headlines that don't quite seem to work. If you see any headlines that seem just a little bit off (or can be read a completely different way from what the author intended) please e-mail them to luke@bthesite.com. That said, here's the March 24th edition.  Here we go:  1)  We hope Gov. Scott recovers quickly "Joe Biden slams Gov. Rick Scott over high-speed rail line" -- headline, Miami Herald, March 23  2)

In 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught on fire and helped spark the American environmental movement. The result was landmark laws, the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, and a generation of efforts to end pollution of the air we breathe and the water we drink. Forty years later and a short drive east, though, water is once again on fire. A flood of natural gas companies has swept into Appalachia, bringing the promise of both economic development and an American energy revolution.

Winds of change are blowing across the water.Bottled water, that is.Along with the push for accuracy in food labeling comes a federal proposal for standard definitions of the various terms used on labels of bottled water.Americans pay 200 to 1,000 times more for bottled water than for tap water -- even though a quarter of all bottled water comes from the same source as tap water, and the Food and Drug Administration believes consumers are entitled to know what's in that water.The standardized definitions, which go into effect July 6, define such terms as "spring water," "artesian water" and "mineral water"; require that labels use the terms truthfully; and require that the quality of bottled water is at least as high as that of tap water.

Public officials have shut down water service and diverted traffic in the wake of a water main break on Old Eastern Ave. in Essex. Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for the Baltimore County Department of Public Works, said the break occurred at the intersection of Back River Neck Rd. and Old Eastern Ave. at about noon Monday. The shutdown of service could affect up to 10,000 homes and businesses on the Back River Neck Peninsula, he said. Officials did not know how long the shutdown would last but said the Baltimore County Fire Department and Baltimore County Emergency Management were on the scene to help in the event of emergencies.

Residents of a block in Finksburg whose wells were infected with a hazardous gasoline additive are asking a Carroll County jury for a minimum $1.5 million civil judgment against the oil company found by the state to be responsible for the pollution. A six-person jury will begin deliberations Monday in Carroll County Circuit Court to decide whether a Tevis Oil-owned gas station tainted wells in a neighboring community with methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE. If the jury finds Tevis at fault, it can award monetary damages.