The bottled-water fad is, we admit, a little odd. In most of the United States, tap water is clean, safe and free of strange tastes or odors. It is also cheap. But some prefer bottled water, and it is their right to spend their money on it if they wish.
Well, that’s not entirely true anymore. Voters in the historic city of Concord, Mass., have approved a ban on the sale of bottled water inside city limits.
Opponents of bottled water are concerned about the effect of discarded bottles on the environment. Sometimes the containers wind up on streets, in streams and in oceans, where they obviously do not belong.
We don’t doubt that the bottles can be a nuisance if they are not disposed of properly. They should be recycled. But we question the wisdom of government forbidding sales of bottled water. There are occasions when bottled water is highly desirable – such as during floods that can contaminate existing water supplies, or on camping trips or at public gatherings where it may not otherwise be easy to provide plenty of sanitary water by other means.
At any rate, it is ironic that such a heavy-handed ban should be imposed in Concord, where one of the first battles of the American Revolution was fought to free our ancestors – and eventually us – from oppressive British rule.
We can only wonder whether our brave forebears would approve of such a “Big Brother” mentality in modern-day Concord.