Media Credit: Michael Saldarriaga

Forgive the native New Jerseyean for having wanted to believe that the water up here isn't too clean. Being from the tri-state area, one has to deal with the fact that the air is not top quality down there, so it's only fair to let another city have the bad water rep.

Anyway, there's a song about dirty water that's pretty popular, so it's got to be true, right?

Apparently not so.

In July, the Today Show held a competition featuring tap water from 12 cities across the country to find which tasted the best. Two professional wine tasters served as the judges and were given the water samples in identical containers, stored at 60 degrees. Though Salt Lake City's water won the taste test, Boston's water turned out to be a top finalist in the competition. Our dirty water was actually described as having "a purity - straight down the middle" and as "very crisp and appealing." All very unscientific, but telling nonetheless. There's clean, crisp water coming out of the faucets - and the science is also out there to prove it.

This columnist conducted her own unofficial survey of the tap water around campus, asking the residents of different halls, "What does your water taste like?"

Some students drank straight from the tap, others preferred the Brita-filtered variety. Here's a snapshot of those answers:

"It's got a clean bouquet," joked Edmond's resident John Glass, A&S '08, adding the adjectives "clean, fresh, delicious " to describe his tap water.

Kristen Borrero, A&S '11, in Medeiros kept her water in the fridge, noting "a strong aftertaste, kind of like mineral."

In the Mods, Tom DeFelice, A&S '08, normally drinks from the Brita filter. When the Brita broke a few days back, DeFelice turned on the tap. Although he still prefers filtered water, he discovered with the tap, "If you put ice in it - tastes delicious."

Over on Newton, "The water seems to be great, especially when filtered through a Brita and drunk cold," said Kate McLean, A&S '11. "Of course, I'm from Florida where the tap water tastes like sulfur."

And our friends on College Road? Can't forget them. Although Kate Neimer, A&S '10, in Williams was drinking out of an old yogurt container, once she got past the yogurt-y taste of the water, she had no complaints. To her, it tasted like bubbler (water fountain) water.

Perhaps some old pipes could be blamed for the occasional funky aftertaste, but overall, students were pretty positive about their water. The question is clear: Why aren't more people taking advantage of the free stuff?

It may have been a while since you last read the label on your Dasani water bottle, but here's a secret: our local dining halls are selling us tap water in a bottle. Dasani's Web site states, "To create Dasani, Coca-Cola Bottlers start with the local water supply, which is then filtered for purity using a state-of-the-art process called reverse osmosis." Reverse osmosis? Sounds like a fancy term for filtering.

On campus, Ecopledge's biggest campaign this year will be aimed at bottled water. It's not just the disposal of the bottles that causes waste, but also the materials and energy used to create and ship the bottles. The club hopes to bring further attention to the environmental injustices that result from buying bottled water, Ecopledge member Peggy Fox explained to me. Not everyone can buy bottled water, and if one continues to support the bottled water market, attention to the quality of public drinking water may decline.

It's no revolution; this summer, city officials across the country (and here in Boston) started taking an active role in urging citizens to take advantage of tap water.

So this year, let's see the administration get in on this campaign. The University should not only be encouraging its employees and students to drink from the faucet, it should be making sure that our water tastes good. And that includes keeping water fountains - or bubblers - around campus up to date.

This year, show your love for our not-so dirty water. Father Leahy, join me in kicking the bottle.

Katherine Cannella is a Heights senior staff columnist. She welcomes comments at kcannella@bcheights.com.

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