The Albuquerque Journal- Mayor moves to end bottled water purchases

July 28, 2010

By Kiera Hay

Tap water would (formally) become the beverage of choice at Santa Fe City Hall if Santa Fe Mayor David Coss gets his way.

Coss said Tuesday he plans to introduce a resolution that will end municipal purchases of bottled water. "The city produces a very good quality of drinking water from our system. It's not inexpensive. It's wasteful ... to produce that good quality of water and turn around and buy bottled water for city offices and programs," Coss said.

It isn't a new idea in Santa Fe. In fact, using tap water instead of bottled water is already so widespread that Coss expects the resolution's financial impact to be minimal.

"We just want to make sure the city of Santa Fe adheres to its policy," he said.

Three years ago, at the suggestion of Councilor Chris Calvert, councilors and staffers switched bottled water for pitchers of tap water in City Council meetings.

At the time, though cities such as San Francisco had already banished bottled

water, Coss shied away from an all-out ban, telling the Journal, "You've got to start, but you've also got to pick your battles."

Santa Fe's city government gradually moved toward using fewer and fewer water bottles anyway, Coss noted Tuesday. He said he can't really recall the last time he saw bottled water handed out by the city at an event or recreation center.

So when anti-water-bottle activists lobbied the recent United States Conference of Mayors in Oklahoma City, Coss was ready to join the cause.

"I said, 'We already do that.' I was happy to sign the pledge," he said.

A resolution has yet to be drafted. Coss said he wants City Manager Robert Romero to evaluate what impact the policy might have. In particular, there could be some questions involving the use of large, water-cooler type jugs shared by entire offices, he said.

Las Cruces is also considering eliminating bottled water from the city's budget, according to a press release issued Tuesday by Corporate Accountability International. The group says that up to 40 percent of bottled water comes from the same source as tap water.

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