Motion Introduced to Restore Public Drinking Fountains

Councilmember Tom LaBonge introduced a motion on September 16 to require the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to work with organizations such as the nonprofit We Tap to restore and bring back public water fountains to public spaces.

In his motion, LaBonge said the average American drinks nearly 30 gallons of water from commercial water bottles, and by not using plastic water bottles can help the environment.

“Many public spaces are removing drinking fountains or failing to maintain them, and the lack of confidence in public water is spreading,” LaBonge warned Palisadian Evelyn Wendel, who founded We Tap in 2009 to promote public drinking fountains, is pleased that her persistence is paying off.

“It is a motion and not passed by Council yet,” she said, noting that she will speak in front of the energy and environment committee next month. If the motion passes through committee, it will then go to the full council for a vote.

“We could use some press about the bad state of water fountains in the city and in parks and schools,” Wendel said, noting that some people feel that bottled water is safer than Los Angeles tap water, but she disagrees.

“The FDA has one part-time person who regulates all of the bottled water in the country. By contrast, the EPA has 150 employees working on clean-water issues. Additionally, in California there is also a standard that must be maintained for drinking water.”

When asked why not just use plastic bottles, Wendel cited numerous reasons. “It costs $8 for a gallon of water [if you buy it in 12-ounce bottles at the grocery store]. Eighty-five percent of these bottles are not recycled and there is a problem with those that are. Plastic is downgraded, which means it can’t be recycled to make another water bottle and most that are slated for recycling are shipped to plants in China.”

According to Jared Blumenfeld, director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, and Susan Leal, general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, more than one billion plastic water bottles end up in California’s landfills each year, leaking toxic additives such as phthalates into the groundwater.

Another downside of plastic water bottles, according to Wendel, is the oil used to manufacture them. Annually, about 1.5-million barrels of oil are used to make bottles. National Geographic magazine notes that 2.7-million tons of plastic are used for water bottles each year worldwide, and the plastic most commonly used, polyethylene terepthalate, is derived from crude oil.

Yet another negative, Wendel said, is the cost to ship “designer” water from France (Evian) or Fiji to the United States.

Visit: WeTap.org or Facebook.com/WeTapApp or climateresolve.org.