Sudbury community forum: 'Is bottled water safe?'

October, 2007

On September 30th people from the community of Sudbury took time on their Sunday afternoon to learn the real truth about the bottled water industry. The ‘Sudbury community forum: Is bottled water safe?’ was sponsored by Polaris Institute in collaboration with EarthCare Sudbury, CUPE local 4705, Development and Peace and the Social Planning Council of Sudbury.

Panellists included Wyman MacKinnon, President of CUPE local 4705, Andrea Harden, Bottled Water Campaigner at Polaris Institute and Nathalie Gara-Boivin, Drinking Water Quality Specialist with the Nickel District Conservation Authority.

Topics covered included the threats of privatization to our public water services, where tap water in Sudbury originates and the many processes it goes through to ensure its safety, how plastics not only contaminate our local ecosystem but also our oceans and an overview of the bottled water industry focusing on environmental-health and social-economic issues.

Following the presentations there was a workshop in which participants discussed how best to get this message to a broader audience in Sudbury. This discussion focussed primarily on how to develop a strategy to encourage the City of Sudbury to stop purchasing and distributing bottled water in City owned buildings. This effort is on-going , there will be updates soon!