A recent report prepared by Food & Water Watch and released by Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation has concluded that tap water is better than bottled water for people's health, costs less, and is better for the environment. These findings contradict the claims of the bottled water industry, which has launched multi-million dollar advertising campaigns on the basis that tap water is less safe than bottled water. In part due to campaigns by the bottled water industry, the United States consumes about 26 gallons per person of bottled water per year.

Among the report's findings:

• Bottled water costs hundreds or thousands of times more 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.
• The Food and Drug Administration regulates only the 30 to 40 percent of bottled water sold across state lines.
• The Environmental Protection Agency requires up to several hundred water tests per month by utility companies while the FDA requires only one water test per week by bottling companies.
• Nearly 40 percent of bottled water is simply filtered or treated tap water.
  U.S. plastic bottle production requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 100,000 cars.
• About 86 percent of the empty plastic water bottles in the United States land in the garbage instead of being recycled.

Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation and Food & Water Watch are encouraging people in Michigan and across the United States to "take back the tap" by choosing tap water over bottled water whenever possible and supporting increased funding for safe and affordable public tap water.