Bottlemania

Is your daily dose of crisp, refreshing Dasani or Evian a blessing or curse? As Royte’s Bottlemania by Royte suggests, the unexamined narrative of how we all turned against the tap (and, belatedly, may be turning back) is both complicated and unsettling. But a consensus is developing that, like the similarly ubiquitous SUV and cell phone, this convenience of today shall exact a costly toll in the long term.

Royte (Garbage Land) shrewdly structures her narrative around the tale of Fryeburg, “the epicenter of Maine’s water wars.” Though Poland Spring has been bottling water there since 1845, its acquisition by corporate giant Nestlé in 1992 led to stealthy, complicated expansion movements that riled many in this archetypally independent New England state. From there, Royte goes off in a dizzying array of directions, examining the history of spas and bottled water, the intricacies of keeping tap water drinkable, a grisly discussion of the many ways in which municipal or bottled water can be contaminated (this book should boost sales of metallic water bottles), and the dangers and complexities created by the explosive growth of branded waters.

Royte’s subject is too complex for her to make many predictions, but she warns of a possible future of privatized water for the rich and low-grade public supplies for everyone else. Overall, it’s an intriguing look at a totem of the ultramodern, perhaps selfish, way we live now.