Wal-Mart is facing questions tonight after CBS13 learns the company draws its bottled water from a Sacramento water district during California’s drought.
According to the label, the water comes from the Sacramento Municipal Water Supply. This comes on the heels of Starbucks opting to move sourcing and production of its Ethos bottled water from California to Pennsylvania.
While the label reads Great Value, the fine print reveals the bottled water is anything but a deal, especially for Sacramento residents.
“Either they were unaware, uninformed or unintentionally did this,” said public relations expert Doug Elmets. “It could be all three of those. Whatever it is, it’s a bad move and they need to correct it and they need to do it quickly.”
According to its own labeling, the water in the gallon jugs appears to come from Sacramento’s water supply.
Sacramento sells water to a bottler, DS Services of America, at 99 cents for every 748 gallons—the same rate as other commercial and residential customers. That water is then bottled and sold at Walmart for 88 cents per gallon, meaning that $1 of water from Sacramento turns into $658.24 for Walmart and DS Services.
For comparison, the city of Sacramento says the average family uses 417 gallons of water a day.