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Des Moines city employees and visitors to City Hall will soon likely be able to drink water only from the tap.
Mayor Frank Cownie said he will present a proposal to the City Council within the next month to phase out the use of bottled water at city buildings and encourage employees and visitors to instead drink the city's tap water.
Such a move would help cut down on the number of plastic bottles that are used each year.
Cownie recently returned from the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting where he backed a resolution supporting municipal water systems over bottled water, except in cases of emergencies when city water is not available.
"This is something, I think, we ought to be aware of in light of the fact that we're voted the best drinking water in the country," he said, referring to Forbes magazine's recent ranking of the city's water as the top in the nation.
The council uses pitchers of water at meetings, and paper cups are available at water fountains in City Hall. Some bottled water is still bought for special meetings and events. There is also bottled water at concession stands at city parks facilities and in vending machines, but the city does not buy this water.
"The idea here is not to put anybody out of the water business, because I think water is much healthier than pop," Cownie said. "What we're trying to do is let people know that local water is safe" to drink.
The majority of council members on Monday said they would support Cownie's proposal.
Councilmen Tom Vlassis and Robert Mahaffey also said they mostly drink tap water.
"We've got a tremendous water system here and the cost of bottled water is ridiculous," Vlassis said.
Cownie said that once bottled water is gone from city offices he'll approach Des Moines corporations about implementing a similar policy.
"It's a broader environmental discussion that we ought to have with everybody," he said.
Critics of bottled water say that its production and transportation emit extra carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and that millions of plastic bottles go to landfills instead of being recycled.
Full Story: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080701/NEWS05/807010371/1001/NEWS
