WSP08301

• File Number: 8273.100.50
• Description: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control - Federal Agency Reports - BOR
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 2/1/1988
• Title: Estimating Economic Impacts of Salinity of the Colorado River - Final Report - February 1988
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

Economic Damages to Households... 33

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on consumer costs related to water quality found
a relationship between bottled water purchases
and water quality, either hardness or TDS. In
fact, in studies that went a step further, the pur-
chase of bottled water was shown to increase
proportionally to the use of home water soft-
eners, which al~o increases with increasing TDS
in the water supply. There has been very little
publicly available research into why a consumer
purchases bottled water, but there is evidence
that the taste of softened water may playa role
in this relationship.

The International Bottled Water Association
provides market research for its members, but
the smaUest available disaggregation is to a state
level (all of California, for example), and most of
its information is on a regional (multi-state)
basis. California is the biggest market for aU
types of bottled water in this country. There has
been speculation that the life style, awareness of
trends, overall wealth of the consumer, etc.,
plays a role in tbis. Purchase of bottled water
can be classified as a voluntary cost except in
those rare instances where a no sodium diet is
prescribed or when temporary pollution of a
water source occurs.

Only one survey exists that specifically asked
consumers in California why they purchase
bottled water. That survey, conducted by 771e
Los Angeles Times in September 1986, asked
registered CalifOrnia voters four questions about
drinking water. The survey results were disag-
gregated to Los Angeles County, Orange Coun-
ty, and the rest of Southern California without
Kern County.

The four questions, asked at the end of a
long questionnaire, were:

a. Is your usual source of drinking water at
home tap water or bottled water? (If tap) Do
you have a water filtration device, or not?

b. What is the main reason you don't use bot-
tled water or a flltration device at home: is it be-
cause you think your tap water is safe, or is it
because bottled water or a filtration device costs
too much, or is it because you are satisfied with
the taste of tap water, or what?

c. What is the main reason you use filtered/
bottled water at home: is it because it tastes

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better than tap water, or is it because it's safer
than tap water?

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d. Just how safe is the water you drink at
home? In your opinion, is it perfectly pure at all
times, or healthy enough and safe to drink, or do
you think it may sometimes be unsafe to drink or
toxic?

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Over half the respondents in Los Angeles
County drink unfiltered tap water, but 48 per-
cent use a ftIter or bottled water. The same is
true for Orange County. Slightly fewer (44 per-
cent) respondents in the rest of Southern Califor-
nia use a filter or buy bottled water. A plurality
of those who drink tap water (about 35 percent)
do so because they are satisfied with its taste,
about 25 percent because they consider it safe,
and 25 percent because of its lower cosr, and the
rest have "other" reasons. More tban 60 percent
of the respondents felt that the tap water was
safe or pure, although one quarter felt that it
was unsafe, and the remainder were not sure.

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Of particular interest to this study, the
reasons for drinking bottled water or using a
home fIlter system were fairly well divided
among the three responses in Orange County
and the rest of Southern California. Only in
Los Angeles County was better taste a stronger
motivation than concern for the safety of water.
The results for question c for the three divisions
are shown in table 6.

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Distorted claims that public water supplies
are unsafe have been made by some sellers of
water softening and purification devices and
some bottled water purveyors. To counter these
unethical tactics, California in 1986 passed two
laws. One requires the State Department of

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Table 6. - Reasons for drinking
bottled water or for using a
home filter system in parts of California
Rest of
L.A. Orange su....cA

Taste

45%

37%

35%

Taste & safety

27%

34%

27%

Safety

34%

20%

38%

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