A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

14 March 2016

Filing for office closes, Desperately Seeking a Majority, bottled H2O

Filing for elected office closes at 1700 MDT today, a few minutes from now (Flathead Memo is getting a late start today). As usual, there's been a glut of final days filings, including one by Larry Jent for the Democratic primary for attorney general. Tomorrow, I'll post a preliminary assessment of the Flathead's legislative contests.

Logicosity is running a fascinating three-part series, Desperately Seeking a Majority, on how Montana’s Democrats recruit and assist legislative candidates. It's a must read for students of the art.

That water bottling plant proposed near Eagan Slough is becoming a hot issue, raising important and highly technical questions on how a water rights application is evaluated. It’s also ignited a debate on the propriety of bottled water. I’ll try to present information later this week on how much water is available.

I seldom use bottled water, but I do not consider it a pure evil. On day trips, I usually carry a stainless steel vacuum flask filled with iced tap water. On day hikes, I carry tap water, which starts out iced, in reusable polyethylene bottles. Sometimes when I’m traveling I carry bottled water in an ice chest. But I don’t use the stuff on a daily basis.

Critics of bottled water usually cite three objections:

  1. Not enough bottles are recycled. Billions of the containers end up in landfills and worse, the ocean. And the bottle caps are said not to be recyclable.

  2. Bottled water is not as tightly regulated as tap water. But weak regulation does not necessarily result in an unsafe product. Bottlers and their associations have voluntarily adopted best practices, as producing a contaminated product is not in their economic self-interest.

  3. Bottled water is sold at an outrageously high price compared to tap water. Bottlers may quibble with the word “outrageously,” but they’ll admit a pint of superpure spring water in plastic costs a lot more than a pint of tap water.

These are valid concerns. More recycling is needed. Bottled water needs to be more tightly regulated. And the mark-up probably makes loan sharks drool with envy.

Still, I imagine the residents of Flint, MI, are grateful they have access to bottled water instead of being condemned to drink the lead tainted water from their taps.