Residents of Lake Station, Indiana, are facing a proposed 35% rate hike for their city supplied water.

The www.nwitimes.com recently covered this controversial story in which involved residents of Lake Station making quite an appearance at City Hall.

The major outcry from residents is that their water is not that clean to begin with. If they are to be charged a considerable amount more, the least that they should expect is much better water. Many residents would have also preferred more gradual increases to the rates that they are charged.

It is safe to assume that the major issue here is not really the cost increase of this proposal. According to the article, even those residents who use the most water would only see their rates go up about $10 per month. On the other hand, the main issue here is water quality. It is expect that the city should be able to provide clean water to its residents for a reasonable cost.

One resident brought a dirty water filter to the City Hall meeting to give a good visual example of how bad the situation is. It might be a given that the challenges being made by increasing water pollution are making it difficult for municipal water treatment plants to deliver the cleanest water possible. However, every step should be taken to get to this point.

Hopefully the outcome of this meeting will at least make the average resident of Lake Station aware of the need to acquire a home water filter. Whether or not they are familiar with a great company like Aquasana, they should still seek out the best water filter that they can. Anyone who saw how bad that filtration cartridge looked will want to avoid the water that their city is delivering through their kitchens tap. Ideally they also avoid bottled water, which is neither proven to be healthier and definitely is not cheaper than home water filtration.

Im sure that anyone who comes across this story will think twice before they assume that their tap water is safe enough to drink.

People are increasingly becoming aware of what a horrible choice bottled water really is.

One of many recently notable articles can be found at Vanderbilt Universitys student news site InsideVandy.com. The guest article did a wonderful job at concisely summarizing the major faults and issues surrounding bottled water.

According to the writer, most Americans continue to drink bottled water either because it has become such a large part of our culture or people are generally unaware of how bad this water source really is. Well, its obviously a little of both in my opinion.

The article also points out some key facts concerning this plastic contained water

• Its 10,000 times more expensive than tap water.
• There is little to no regulation in the bottled water industry quality is not guaranteed.
• Forty percent of water that is bottled is essentially tap water.
• To produce a water bottle, it takes 3 times the amount of water that it can contain.

In light of these facts, it really makes no sense for this industry to continue to thrive like it has. Speaking of thriving, the industry rakes in more than 60 billion dollars per year. That money could definitely be used to make a positive impact on the environment, instead of the negative one that this industry is known for. The fact is that a high percentage of these bottles end up in landfills. This form of pollution, like most, is obviously avoidable.

More articles from university sites and others need to be published. Eventually, everyone will become aware of how bad this way of getting drinking water really is. How many water bottles will you throw away before you begin to become concerned? How many more hundreds of dollars do you want to waste on these overpriced bottles of water?

What about those who are concerned about the quality of tap water? There are alternatives. Home water filtration systems like Aquasana are an excellent option. These systems can offer you highly pure water for a fraction of the cost of bottled water. It only takes a small amount of planning ahead to fill your reusable water container at home to take with you to work or wherever.

Please do your part to help spread the message Bottled water has to go.

Aquasana is having an Awesome August Sale. You can save 30% on their Rhino EQ-300 Whole House Water Filter.

Well, obviously August is half way over as of this post, but I thought better late than never to help spread the word about this great deal. So if youve considered getting a whole house filter from Aquasana, this would be a great time to take advantage of this special Aquasana coupon.

There are plenty of things that come to mind when I think about the companys whole house filtration system. I personally do not own one, but I think it would make things much simpler in terms of getting all of the clean water that I need. Instead of buying a drinking water filter and a shower filter, a whole house one would be all you need. There are also those who unfortunately live in areas where the water quality is poor at best. It would not be unheard of for someone in that situation to want to have an EQ-300 as an initial filter in addition to using an Aquasana countertop or under sink water filter as a final filter. This double filtration set up might be unnecessary, but it might be difficult to convince someone of that who has to deal with really bad water.

Whats notable about this water filter is that its three stage system removes 99% of chlorine, in addition to many other contaminants commonly found in city water. The company spared no expenses to make a heavy-duty filtration system that can deliver plenty of clean water to households of any size. Youll be able to enjoy plenty of clean water for less than 50 cents per day.

I think that its too bad that there must be some people that might consider this system to be too expensive. Many of these individuals probably spend the equivalent of the cost of this whole house filter in bottled water expenses in less than a year. So instead of buying bottled water for a year, they could use that money to buy Aquasanas whole house filter and have all of the water they need for three years. Replacement cartridges are not typically needed for this system until the end of the third year. This could potentially add up to hundreds of dollars in savings over bottled water.

Theres only one minor catch with this system. It typically requires, and is strongly recommended that a professional be called to install the system. Yet again, this extra cost will definitely be off set by the savings that you would see compared with purchasing bottled water. Youll also gain some peace of mind knowing that you are doing your part by not contributing to the massive amounts of water bottles that end up in land fills.

So, thats about it. As always, thanks for reading and do yourself and the planet a favor by considering Aquasanas whole house filter for your home. Its a pretty easy decision to make, as far as Im concerned.

The state of Vermont is considering a plan to get rid of bottled water services to all state government offices.

Naturally, this has many state employees quite upset. Many do not have on-site access to water that is fit for consumption. The state argues that spending more than $200,000 annually on bottled water while millions have already been spent on public water treatment makes no sense. Theyve also tested water at 8 different office locations and determined the water to be potable.

The state is also looking to do the right thing from an environmental perspective, in addition to saving money. They make the obvious point that many chemicals go into the the process of making the plastic for the water coolers. However, they did not make the obvious distinction between the large, durable plastic water jugs that are reused and the common smaller plastic disposable water bottle. So while they mention the environment, their main concern is largely monetary, and thats fine. It would be better if they were to just focus on their economic concerns, as that seems to be the primary issue here.

Both sides seem to be completely unaware of any other options. The best solution in this case is one that has already been adopted by many different types of businesses and office environments. It simply involves the installation of a high-capacity water filter that can provide filtered water throughout an office. There would, of course, be costs involved with this change but it would be considerably less than paying for a water delivery service.

Another option would be for states like Vermont to actively seek out a mutually beneficial relationship with a home water filtration company like Aquasana. The state could work out a deal to purchase a large number of filters from the company at a discounted price and pass the savings on to state employees. Office workers can simply take their home filtered water with them to work. They would obviously also have the benefit of having access to this water away from work as well.

The second option would require that enough employees are willing to spend some of their own money for their own home water filters. This would not be an issue once people realize the many benefits they would gain with this plan. They would save money on water away from work, gain a more convenient way to get water, and maybe even become a little healthier.

Theres no question that many, if not all states are still suffering financially from the recent recession. The challenge that our elected officials have are considerable. With such large budget deficits, many officials are faced with cutting some very basic and crucial public programs. Ideally they will strive to always do the right thing and protect those that need the most help.

I think that this story is a grey area. As important as clean drinking water is, state employees do have reasonable options like bringing water from home. These difficult times are calling for all of us to pitch in a little more and find new ways to work together. Hopefully that idea will catch on.

It has been happening with increasing frequency and severity. Many American towns are dealing with flooding like never before.

Flooding often contaminates local drinking water supplies and forces people to stock up on large amounts of bottled water. A recent example of this happened a little over a week ago in Minot ND. A local grocery chain sold 45,000 cases of bottled water in a span of two weeks.

It is safe to guess that most of those bottles are not going to get recycled. However, local recycling organization Earth Recycling has seen a corresponding increase in business in relation to the boil order that has been in effect. The fact remains that not all of that large number of bottles of water will make it to a recycling center. This is simply not environmentally acceptable. It seems that as long as disposable bottled water is produced it will lead to another source of unnecessary waste.

The bottled water story is really just one of a lack of education and awareness. It seems that many are simply not aware of an alternative way to get clean water in an emergency situation, other than buying wasteful plastic bottles. The fact is that home water filters like Aquasana can provide people with safe drinking water. Its actually more convenient than bottled water because you dont have to leave your home to get the water you need.

Admittedly, if the flooding is severe enough in your area where your home is actually flooded, you wont have access to the water that your filtration system can provide. The only exception would be if you had enough time to fill up some containers before you were forced out of your home.

Is laziness also a contributing factor to the popularity of bottled water? I think so. It really does not take that much effort to use and maintain a non-disposable container for drinking water. This is very similar to the idea of someone reusing cloth bags for grocery shopping. Its not that difficult. Fortunately, many grocery stores across the country are starting to discontinue the use of plastic bags. Its just another source of unnecessary waste.

You might argue that being in an emergency situation, like a flooding area, might change my perspective on plastic contained water. I have to admit that I have not been in that kind of situation. However, I do know that the water bottled industry is hardly regulated, so there really is no guarantee that these companies are selling healthy water.

I would like to think that I would have enough time to fill up some water jugs with my home water filtration system in time before being forced to leave my home. From an environmental perspective, its the right thing to do.