TAPPED in Golden

Peggy and I went to the screening of TAPPED last night at the Mountain Center in Golden as part of the Colorado Environmental Film Festival. This is a movie about all aspects of the bottled water industry in the United States although the effects are global. The film covered issues such as the privatization of water, problems with aquifer depletion, chemicals in the plastics (both in manufacturing and for consumers), and what happens to the bottles when they are empty.

I had been aware of these problems, but not the severity. Nestle's (Perrier and Arrowhead in the west) attempts to control water supplies have been legendary, but they are not alone. Coca-Cola (Aquafina), Pepsi (Dasani), Suez, RWE and Vivendi. See Public Citizen for descriptions.

I also did not fully understand the effects of bisphenol-A. The off-gassing was known to me and that it had been linked to reproductive problems, but that is just the tip of the ice berg. More than 200 animal studies have linked ingesting minute amounts of the

substance to a range of reproductive problems, brain damage, immune deficiencies, metabolic abnormalities, and behaviors like hyperactivity, obesity, learning deficits.

Prior to the screening we had dinner with John Graham and Michele Riggio of Chaffee Citizens for Sustainability who have been fighting Nestle in the Arkansas River Valley. We were also joined by Jim Wilfong, a former Maine legislator, who has been fighting Nestle in Maine for the past six years.

TAPPED is a good example of artists using their skills and passions to react to what they find in the world. What else is being done? Where are the arts being used to address water issues? Email me and let me know.