July 31, 2007(MSNBC.COM) - Bottled waters may soon be getting clearer. No, I'm not talking about the clarity, or even purity, of the waters that we Americans spent $15 billion on last year. I'm talking about labeling!

Water labels do have federal regulation requirements; however, it's easy to be misled.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reports that about 75 percent of bottled water sold in the U.S. comes from natural underground sources, which include rivers, lakes, springs and artesian wells.

And the other 25 percent?

That comes from municipal sources, which is exactly the “source” of two leading brands of bottled water — Dasani (Coca-Cola) and Aquafina (PepsiCo).

The FDA requires that when a community water system source is used, the label must include “from a community water system” or “from a municipal source.” However, and here's where both brands’ labels can be misunderstood, if the water is distilled, deionized or uses reverse osmosis, it can be called “purified water.” And it does not have to state on its label that it is “from a community water system” or “from a municipal source.”

Aquafina announced last week that it is thinking about making a change on its label. Currently, its tag line reads “Pure water pure taste” under an image of a mountain, and their Web site indicates that their proprietary filtering system purifies the water several ways. The source of the water is not named and the company admits that Aquafina's water is purified from public reservoirs. It has also not announced that the change is definitely going to be made or, if it is, by when.

August 2, 2007 (MSN.COM) — The largest bottled-water factory in North America is on the outskirts of Hollis, Maine. In the back of the plant stretches the staging area for finished product: 24 million bottles of Poland Spring water.

As far as the eye can see, there are double-stacked pallets of half-pint bottles, half-liters, liters, "aquapods" for school lunches and 2.5-gallon jugs for refrigerators.

We Americans pitch 38 billion water bottles a year into landfills -- in excess of $1 billion worth of plastic. And 24% of the bottled water we buy is tap water repackaged by Coca-Cola (KO, news, msgs) and PepsiCo (PEP, news, msgs).

MACOMB, IL, July 25, 2007 (Water Tech) — The city water utility here has upgraded operations at its treatment plant to reduce turbidity and comply with the more stringent statewide regulations on trihalomethanes (THMs), a type of disinfection byproduct, according to July 25 article in The Macomb Journal.

Jim Bessler, city utilities manager, reported during a July 23 city council meeting that the city has reduced incidences of state environmental violations by having a water treatment operator on duty 24 hours a day.

He also said that blending reverse osmosis-treated well water with surface water has reduced instances of turbidity.

Bessler also said that Macomb has achieved an 18 percent reduction in THMs by changing the point at which chlorination is applied, the article said.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX, July 26, 2007 (Water Tech) — Disinfection levels in the water system here have been a cause for concern, prompting an initial boil-water alert for this South Texas city of nearly 300,000.

The boil-water advisory now has been limited to two areas, Padre Island and part of Mustang Island, as city officials continue to investigate what caused lower levels of chlorine in the water system, reported the Corpus Christi Caller-Times on July 25.

City officials said in a July 24 Caller-Times article that the boil-water notice was a precautionary measure. They did not find elevated levels of bacteria in the water and no illnesses have been reported.

Water Superintendent Eduardo Garaña told the newspaper that the lower chlorine levels likely were connected to lower water usage.

Heavy rains have limited use of water for irrigation, and the system, which usually pumps 100 million gallons per day (mgd) during the summer now is pumping about 68 mgd, the article said.

DENVER, July 27, 2007 (Water Tech) — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 8 has issued summaries of recent actions taken in Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and Utah regarding the safety of drinking water systems.

In Wyoming, EPA issued 22 administrative orders, one emergency administrative order and settled four complaints for penalty from June 2006 through March 2007.

In Montana, in which the state has primary authority over the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), EPA issued 19 notices of violation and 16 administrative orders for the period from June 2006 to March 2007.

In North Dakota, EPA issued five notices of violation from June 2006 through March 2007.

In Utah, the agency issued four administrative orders and settled one penalty complaint for the period from June 2006 through March 2007.

WASHINGTON, August 3, 2007 (Water Tech) — Bills have been introduced in Congress that would require the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to tighten its maximum contaminant level (MCL) drinking water standard for the degreasing chemical trichloroethylene (TCE), an August 1 Newsday article reported.

The current MCL for TCE is 5 parts per billion (ppb). Benjamin Grumbles, EPA’s assistant administrator for the Office of Water, was quoted in the article as saying that his agency will review the standard and new scientific information about TCE’s health risk to determine whether the standard should be adjusted as part of EPA’s regular six-year review process.

A bill that would likely accelerate EPA’s review was introduced this week in the Senate by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and similar legislation will be introduced in the House by Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Hilda Solis (D-CA).

Clinton’s bill would require EPA to revise its health advisory on TCE within six months of the bill becoming law, and would revise the TCE standards for drinking water and vapor intrusion with 12 months.

According to the article, Clinton said that “EPA has failed to protect the public from TCE in the face of stronger scientific evidence that it causes cancer, and growing exposure problems in New York and across the country.”

Clinton was quoted in the article as saying that TCE has been found in more than 30 or 86 Superfund sites across New York.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA, August 6, 2007 (Water Tech) — A San Bernardino-area water district could end up spending as much as $30 million to comply with new state regulations that set a limit on the amount of perchlorate allowable in public drinking water, according to an August 2 article in The Press-Enterprise.

Perchlorate, a chemical component of rocket fuel and some fertilizers, can have deleterious health effects when ingested, such as disrupting thyroid function.

The proposed California standard, expected to take effect in the fall, allows no more than 6 parts per billion (ppb) of perchlorate in drinking water.

The East Valley Water District, which provides water for 70,000 people, has 8.6 ppb perchlorate in one well and averages slightly above the new proposed limit overall, the article said.