My Quest For The “Perfect” Water Bottle

Last year, I wrote about the BPA in our water bottles and my quest for finding the perfect (according to me) water bottle. Since the summer I’ve been using the plethora of different sized, double-walled stainless steel thermoses we already owned and that was great for keeping things cold and avoiding the BPA in the polycarbonate bottles (and there are no plastic liners in our thermoses). But I dearly missed having a straw top on my water bottle like I did with all of my polycarbonate bottles.

Here is my list of what a perfect water bottle would consist of:

• BPA-free
• Double-walled stainless steel
• Straw top
• Cover for straw
• Non-leaking
• Attractive
• Fit in my car’s cup holder
• Hold more than 2 cups of water
• Reasonably Priced

I received a free Camelbak “Better Bottle” that is BPA-free and has the straw top but it is not insulated. It works fine as my household water bottle but is not so good for taking with me when it’s hot out plus it does leak a little when it’s on it’s side which is what happens in the car or in my tote bag. That is a deal breaker for me. At least the variety of thermoses I have been carting around in the car keeps the water cold for a long time and they don’t leak but having to unscrew the top each time I wanted a drink was annoying and time consuming.

I did check out the Klean Kanteen water bottles but never bought one because they are only single walled stainless steel and you have to unscrew the cap, too. What I already owned was better, IMO and I have a variety of sizes.

A few months later, I had finally found my perfect water bottle! The only problem was that every time I went to purchase it at the store, they were out of the nice, attractive bottles and all that was left were ones for kids with characters on them like Dora the Explorer or Spiderman. Even though I was looking for a bigger, better water bottle for my son as well as myself, I didn’t want the superhero on it. So I waited. I kept using what I had while I periodically checked for the bottles I wanted to be in stock at a few different stores. The stores told me they only receive a few of the non-character ones but many of the ones I didn’t want!

Finally, in late October, my local Target had a few non-character water bottles available and I got the blue striped one for my son as one of his Christmas gifts. He loves it and so do I! It does NOT leak, has the straw with a one button pop open top that both protects the straw and keeps it from leaking and it even fits in my car’s small cup holder and holds 18 oz of water (more than 2 cups!). That is good enough for running errands for me and for longer trips, I will fill my big double-walled stainless steel thermos to leave in the car to refill my perfect carrying sized new water bottle. And the price? it’s around 15 bucks. Oh happy day for me!

This water bottle is made by Thermos and it is the Intak Steel Hydration Bottle.  For some reason on the web page it does not say that it is BPA-free but the tag on the bottle itself lists it in a few places. I will be getting myself the purple flower design one since I must have this bottle now!

For little kids, Thermos makes the BPA-free Foogo line of stainless steel food and beverage containers (smaller size).

I have to say, we’ve owned several stainless steel products made by Thermos for many years and they have never failed us in what they are designed to do so I have faith that this new, “perfect” water bottle will provide us with years of drinking enjoyment!

My Local Sustainability Fair Part 2

Click here for Part 1.

After finishing up at the Agriculture presentation, I moved on to the presentation about Water and Climate Change. The first speaker was Charles Montgomery from The Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. His words were very profound to hear spoken to the masses. I have known this info for a while but many people don’t like to discuss or even believe it.

Charles said, “The world is rapidly warming due to the greenhouse gas effect. CO2 and methane are great in small amounts to balance the cold effect but in large amounts, they are disastrous.” The problems really started to escalate in the 1970’s and it is way worse in the western part of the U.S. And ground zero for global warming in the U.S. is CO, UT, NM, AZ.  90% of global warming is caused by human activities (including factory farming).  There is a coming crisis in the water supply of the western U.S.  From north to south, it will be getting hotter and drier. Where I live will stay approximately the same because I am near the mountains and the runoff. Woo hoo!

He did say with the earth’s temperature increasing, we will be getting more rain rather than snow so there will not be much snowpack in the mountains and also melting will be happening earlier which means the evaporation rates will be accelerating. Really not a good thing for all the states that rely on the Colorado river basin. He said that by the year 2100 or sooner, we are going to dry out the system. We are still currently before the “point of no return” temperature-wise so we need to make major, global changes now before it’s too late for us to be able to do anything about it.

He did leave us with this final thought, “We have to take action now, climate scientists around the world are terrified right now. Think about sustainability collectively.”

The next person to speak, Tracy from the Great Western Initiative spoke about water conservation and all that we can do. He gave examples of what sustainable, technological developments came out of Australia where they have been suffering from severe drought for decades. Another fun fact I learned is that 20% of energy used in the U.S. is to treat, pump and distribute water. I personally think the whole pooping in our water supply is wrong, disgusting and both a waste of energy and polluting of a dwindling valuable resource. I hope we will start to change our thinking on this soon since our water is drying up. There are many alternative options to this.

He also talked about “community based social marketing” which helps to identify what the barriers are to people’s behaviors changing.

What we can do: education: influence the schools, be aware of our own use, check for leaks, how do you spend your money, tell the stores, vote with your dollar.

Communicate: Telling your friends your story will then lead to changing attitudes. Change then becomes part of our social fabric and it becomes sustainable. (Which is why I am blogging about this in such detail).

The last person to speak on water was a woman named Cynthia from Aware Colorado. She spoke about the connection between land use and water being blocked from getting into the land by impervious surfaces. Now some towns are designing parking lots and roads with pavers instead of blacktop so that water can seep back into the land instead of just evaporate. She also talked about new street designs that have swales to catch the water, different street edges for water to get into the soil, xeriscaping, native plants that need less water, gravel roads instead of blacktop to absorb water, rooftop gardens to help with regulating a building’s heating and cooling and natural ecosystems put back in place.

The other two presentations on Alternative Energy and Recycling I didn’t get to hear but since I’ve lived off the grid for a few years I know all about the greatness of solar and wind power and the stupidity of us as a nation not utilizing this free power source. But we can all right now buy wind power through our local power company or a reputable online company.

Recycling in our town went up a notch recently when curbside pickup went single stream and that makes life easier for people who choose not to recycle the items that were not picked up at their house. Now they can recycle much more since almost everything is being picked up from their house and they don’t have to make a special trip to the recycling center. They also had posters up saying they would be doing curbside compost pick up within the next few years for those townspeople that don’t compost or have a garden. Amazing!

All of the speakers I heard that day were very enlightening and really helped get the message out and got people thinking. The best one was the keynote speaker, L. Hunter Lovins. I will write about what her message was in part 3.

Water, Water Everywhere

For the past few months, I’ve been really not happy with our filtered water that I drink everyday. Our tap water is really very good, it’s originally Rocky Mountain snow melt then it gets treated and comes to our tap. We then filter it with a very high quality double carbon filter to take out the additives that was put into the water. As with everything with me this year, my taste buds have changed so much and now it doesn’t taste as good to me anymore. It’s still just fine for my husband and child and pets, though.

When we lived in the mountains, we had the most pure water (and air) that I’ve ever had the pleasure to drink. Our yurt tanks were filled from a well that tapped into an underground spring that is fed by a glacier and the water has been tested to be even more pure than Evian. We got to bathe, drink and cook with this water everyday. I remember when we first moved down to the valley and got our filter, I was so unhappy with it compared to that water. I eventually adjusted to the (in my mind) sub-par water taste and dealt with it. I can’t do it anymore, I have been craving the “old” water everyday for months now.

The little hippie town next to where we lived in the mountains actually has a pipe in place where this glacier-fed spring water comes to the surface and starts to run down into the creek. You can fill up there all you want for free. This same creek runs all the way down the mountain and into my neighborhood creek 2 blocks from where I live so I think about this special water a lot. I have filled up containers at the source many times over the years but it’s a 45-60 min. drive from where we live now and I don’t have the time to do it that often. There is also a small water delivery co. that fills up at this source and brings it down the mountain to large holding tanks and fills up 3 and 5 gallon glass or plastic water bottles and has dispensers, too and delivers it all over down here in the valley.

This would be a new, extra monthly expense for us and we talked about it in the winter and finally agreed that we would do it because it’s such incredible water to drink and it’s worth it (plus I wouldn’t shut up about it!) and we don’t really buy anything else to drink except occasional juice because we usually make enough of our own fresh juices.

We got our first delivery in July when my mother-in-law was visiting us. Two five gallon glass containers and a stand and dispenser. I was in heaven and so was my husband, son and MIL. Everyone noticed how much better it tasted and we drank 10 gallons within a week’s time! Granted, it was sweltering outside and we were drinking a lot.

There really is something to be said about drinking many thousands of years old “structured water.” The water crystals are shaped like mini snowflakes and when joined together form a honeycomb shaped liquid crystal structure. When water first emerges from underground and pours into a stream or creek, there is so much life force in it and it has the minerals of the earth surrounding it absorbed in it’s structure. It’s a very healing water with no pollution since it’s coming from deep underground. There are all kinds of different healing properties to such a living water. Each source is different and works in different ways depending on where you find it on the planet. It’s important to keep the water cool and away from light to help it keep it’s crystal structure intact.

I’m actually very lucky to have another great water source besides this one that is an “artesian” spring water. But, I prefer the taste and the energetics of the glacier water – and I can get it in large glass bottles so there can be no leaching of anything. Nothing beats the taste of pure Rocky Mountain spring water. It has also won taste test competitions to be rated as the best tasting water west of the Mississippi and is in the top 5 internationally.

We’ve had our second delivery already and every time I drink this water or make a sun tea with it I’m so psyched! It tastes so good and feels like there is body or depth to it, almost like how you would taste different wines for their different flavors and depth. If you think about our physical bodies being made up of mostly water and you then feed it crystalline structured, pure water, well it’s got to be doing something good for us then you would think.

All I know is that I’m extremely happy and grateful to have this water in my life everyday again and so happy that it’s available in my area!

photos: MTGrizzly, Marc_714