Guzzling bottled water, that is.

Oh, it may not be Evian or even Perrier. It may be Arrowhead or the budget Kirkland brand from Costco.

But you're hooked.

Which, from one perspective, is good. Doctors say most of us don't drink enough. Bottled water is convenient, whether you're on the go or just sitting around the house.

But, dear readers, it's an environmental disaster.

Who would have thought it?

Making all those plastic bottles consumes millions of barrels of oil a year. Transporting all that water, sometimes halfway around the world, consumes even more oil.

Tapping natural springs for the water itself can harm aquifers and rivers.

And most of those plastic bottles find their way to a landfill, where they will rest in near-perpetuity. Many of those that are recycled end up in China, where environmental regulations are lax, causing more air and water pollution as the materials are reprocessed.

All of this might be understandable if bottled water were superior to what comes out of the tap. But in Utah, as in most of the United States, that's not true.

Sure, it may taste a bit different, contain fewer or different minerals or be carbonated. But the EPA standards for tap water are actually stricter than the FDA standards for bottled water.

Bottled water grew up in places elsewhere in the world where tap water was not healthy. But that's not the case here.

And by far the best way to deliver healthy water to people at the lowest cost is to invest in systems for public drinking water, not in overpriced bottled water, which often costs more per gallon at retail than gasoline.

Bottled water makes huge bucks for Nestle, Coke and Pepsi, which together own most of the leading brands, but from the perspective of the common good, it makes no sense.

Which is why we salute Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and his colleagues at the U.S. Conference of Mayors who passed a resolution to study the issue. There's really nothing to study, but it's a start at public education that may convince Americans to do the right thing.

Which is to swear off the bottle.