Across parts of Appalachia, some people don’t trust their water, or their water isn’t safe to drink, so they turn to bottled water, even for cooking in some cases.
“And they rely solely on bottled water, and bottled water is incredibly expensive,” said Leigh Anne Krometis, a professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech.
She and four other researchers spoke with residents in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, for a study that was published last year in the journal PLOS Water. They found those who bought bottled water were spending up to 2000 times what the average bill is for municipal water. Krometis said bottled water costs some families 10 to 20 percent of their income.
“And a lot of times we were sampling in homes where they don’t make a lot of money,” Krometis said. “Like these are homes where they have a very limited financial income.”
Krometis said many people across the United States perceive bottled water as a luxury product, but in rural areas without adequate water infrastructure, it's often seen as a necessity.
“It’s not a luxury. You need water. And if the water coming out of your tap is terrible, you are going to buy bottled water, even if it’s an enormous expense,” Krometis said.
Across Appalachia, many people live in areas with outdated or poorly maintained water systems, and some rely on well or spring water. In the study, some residents complained about their water’s taste or smell. When the researchers tested the water, they found traces of coliform, e-coli or lead in some homes.
Krometis points out that bottled water isn’t great for the environment because of the plastic it produces. And though bottled water tends to have fewer contaminants, it is high in microplastics.
There are no federal guidelines for microplastic consumption, and more research is needed to understand what, if any, health impacts they could have on humans who consume large quantities of it.
Krometis is hoping to expand the research, to find out if there is a connection to aging infrastructure and how many people in a community buy bottled water.
