Fresh on the heels of National Drinking Water Week, our Canadian neighbors are celebrating their own initiative to take back the tap.

For the third year in a row Canadians celebrated Bottled Water Free Day. Festivities included 12 new campuses country-wide pleging to phase-out the sale and consumption of bottled water as well as numerous speakers from groups including the Sierra Youth Coalition, the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

The Quench Weekly Water Top 10 recaps the week’s top stories on drinking water issues. Come back each week for the latest news!

• Celebrate Drinking Water Week by Drinking More Water! – Here’s eight ways how in pictures.

• S.S. Badger Starts its Newest -Maybe Last- Season – The coal-burning ferry has until December 15 to refit itself to meet EPA standards.

• “Genuine” NYC Bagels – This time the vendor who claims to duplicate the famous city’s famous water to make bagels is in Maryland.

• Boeing Pays for Dirty Water – The company was just ordered to pay the city of Santa Monica $39.5 million for water cleanup.

• How Much Water is There in the World? – Extensive info on just how much water and where in the world it is.

• Everglades Water Quality to Improve – A settlement has been reached to expand the restoration of the Everglades…at the price tag of $890 million.

• One-third of Chambersburg Wells Contaminated – According to this new data from Penn State Extension data.

• 5 Ways to Stay Hydrated for Finals and Other Tests – Hint: these tips work for almost any stressful activity where focus is needed.

• Vermont May Be the First State to Ban Fracking – The measure was finished and passed to Gov. Peter Shumlin for his signature and is expected to pass soon.

• The American Water Works Association Celebrates Drinking Water Week

Loyola University Chicago is the latest institution to ban the sale of bottled water on campus starting 2013 but the university didn’t cite litter or economical reasons for the switch.

The Student Environmental Alliance and student government released a joint statement giving it up to God saying, “We consider the sale of bottled water on campus in conflict with the Jesuit tradition and Loyola’s mission to ‘be in service of humanity through learning, justice and faith.’”

The Quench Weekly Water Top 10 recaps the week’s top stories on drinking water issues. Come back each week for the latest news!

• Mass. Town’s Mass Ban May Prove Hard to Enforce –

• Hampton Roads Encourages Taking Back the Tap – The Virginia town is encouraging its residents to ‘take back the tap’ with a week’s worth of clean water events.

• Gearing Up for Drinking Water Week 2012 – As May 6 draws closer, the American Water Works Association readies by releasing some suggested materials and activities for people.

• Buckeye Lake Improving, Say the Anglers – Professional anglers and other fishermen claim to already see the improvements in the water quality of Buckeye Lake, the focus of health advisories last summer.

• Lakes Michigan and Erie Stealing Honeoye’s Thunder – While there has been a lot of focus on the algae pools in Lakes Erie and Michigan lately, recent tests show Lake Honeoye to be one of the dirtiest.

• National Groundwater Contamination Levels – Check out this cool interactive graphic to see how your locale stacks up!

• Texas City Readies for Summer – In preparation for high summer water usage, the city of Victoria will make a change to its water purification process, which may affect taste and odor. The change is expected to last about a month, from May 21 to June 15.

• Business Almost Back to Normal – The water in a south Everett stream inundated by raw sewage April 12, is just about back to normal, according to water quality tests.

• More Good News About Water Quality Improvement – The water quality of the Charles River remained good during the last year and is improving, according to an annual report card by the Environmental Protection Agency.

• Mahogany Tide Rising – Record-high water temperatures and a March sewage leak are contributing to a large algae bloom in the Baltimore harbor, bringing what is known as a “mahogany tide” of reddish-brown algae. The bloom is earlier and more severe than usual.

Hi everyone! So it’s been one week since I planted our little mystery seeds with nothing more than coconut fiber and Quench water in celebration of spring.

Here’s the most recent picture of our little guy, be sure to check back at least once per week for an update and be sure to guess how many flowers will bloom to win an awesome, secret hydration prize!

The Quench Weekly Water Top 10 recaps the week’s top stories on drinking water issues. Come back each week for the latest news!

• Massachusetts Breaking Ground – Concord has become the first town in America to entirely ban the sale of bottled water.

• Granite City Water Plant Wins Award – The plant won the National Director’s Award for continuing to provide drinking water that exceeds federal standards.

• Codorus Creek Polluted No More – Thanks to a state grant there will be a 2.5 mile water infiltration system put into place that will stop urban stormwater runoff from running into the creek.

• The Cold, Wet Facts – In case you were still wondering how much better tap water is for you than bottled water, here’s some helpful info.

• Biggest Water Science Discovery in 100 Years – An Erie man discovered how to turn saltwater into fuel! Saltwater-powered cars anyone?

• Water Tank Reopened After Two Years – After a more-than-thorough scrubbing, the Cove Recreation drinking water system was turned back on. It had been off since August of 2010!

• One More Delay in Fracking Regulation – The Obama administration announced that there were new air pollution rules regarding fracking but that it would delay enforcing the rules for two years.

• Lime and Light – Looking for a quick way to clean your drinking water? According to this new study, lime and sunlight may do the trick.

• Hard Water, Hard Facts – Here are some facts about hard water, where it is found and what to do about it.

• Wisconsin Making People Sick – Non-enforcement of new phosphorus limits (if you think laws made two years ago are still new) in the water is making people sick!

To celebrate spring and bring a little color into the office, I planted some flowers. What kind are they? What colors will they be? Will the grand experiment work?

Be sure to check back for pictures and updates on how the little guy is doing and don’t forget to guess how many flowers will bloom to win a super-secret prize!

It recently was made shockingly clear to me just how expensive bottled water really is.

I know it can cost up to ten thousand times more than its tapped counterpart but didn’t really know how much that was.

The Wallstreet Journal’s Speakeasy blog put it all into perfect perspective with a recent article that revealed Americans spent more than eleven billion dollars on bottled water in 2010 that cost more per ounce than gasoline!

If you had a hard time picturing just how unnecessarily expensive bottled water is before, hopefully that fact helped.

The Quench Weekly Water Top 10 recaps the week’s top stories on drinking water issues. Come back each week for the latest news!

• Is Farming the New Fracking? – The Environmental Working Group thinks it may be, alleging in its new report that “America’s drinking water is at risk from poor farming practices that contaminate streams, lakes and groundwater with fertilizer and manure.”

• Saltwater Be Damned – Northern Florida municipal water supplier JEA announced that it won the 2012 Region II Best Drinking Water Taste Test. Well done.

• Chemical Found in Drinking Water Linked to Cancer – A panel of scientists recently found that perfluorooctanoic, found in drinking water in Ohio and West Virginia, is linked to cancer of the testicles and kidneys.

• Crying Over Spilt Water – North Port, FL wastes one-fifth of its treated drinking water every day by pumping it onto the ground. But there may be a cure in sight.

• Six Secrets to Conquering Allergy Season – Hint: water really can do anything!

• Las Vegas Tapping In – With readily-available water lacking, Las Vegas’s plans to pipe in water from the Great Basin seem to be gaining traction.

• Save Water This Earth Day – Here are six ways you can start making a difference right now.

• EPA Keeps Delaying – This time the EPA is delaying rules on capturing the air pollution created at fracking sites. The pollution rules will reportedly be delayed until 2015.

• Groundwater Results from Superfund Site Available – The EPA just released the results from the site of the Lehigh Valley railroad derailment site.

• More Water-Saving Tips – These are to be used in the home. Happy saving!

The first Earth Day was held in 1970. It was inspired when then-U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson witnessed the effects of the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara.

Inspired by the student anti-war movement of the time, Nelson’s goal was to make Earth Day a “national teach-in on the environment”. With only 85 promoters nationwide, the first Earth Day drew 20 million participants and led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. By 1990, more than 200 million people in 141 countries worldwide were participating in Earth Day.

Earth Day became a time when different environmental groups could rally together under one larger umbrella whether they were fighting oil spills, polluting factories, toxic dumps or wildlife preservation. These days, Earth Day is still celebrated on April 22, but there are many different events and celebrations held throughout the week.

Some of my first memories of Earth Day are planting trees at Matzke Elementary School in the small, fenced-in garden behind our playground. What are some of your Earth Day memories? Do you have any Earth Day traditions?