In August, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that Saratoga Springs bottled water will be served at this fall’s Presidential Inauguration. Many groups openly voiced their opposition, including DC Water, the utility who provides Washington’s tap water. They all believe tap water should be used to tout our nation’s municipal water system (not to mention save lots of money). After all, isn’t this an event celebrating the USA and its ingenuity?
The General Manager of DC Water asked Schumer to “reconsider your selection of bottled water and instead support the nation’s drinking water systems by choosing DC tap water.
”DC tap water is a penny per gallon and bottled water costs 100 times more,” said George Hawkins. He also offered to provide free reusable water bottles and free water testing in congressional buildings.
Have we mentioned how much we LOVE this offer?
According to the Los Angeles Times, a Schumer spokesman said Saratoga Spring would be providing bottles of sparkling water and DC tap was already going to be available to anyone who prefers tap to sparkling.
Adam Madkour, chief executive of Saratoga Spring Water Co., said in an email to the Los Angeles Times: “We don’t appreciate the claim or the position the DC water officials are taking against bottled water…. Sen. Schumer chose to honor our historic company by having us present at an historic moment. For that we will continue to support anyone’s choice of quality American made products.”
The point that the Senator and others on the committee are failing to see, however, is just what Hawkins alluded to: using bottled water means throwing away (or recycling, we hope) lots and lots of plastics into an increasingly fragile environment. It’s not so much about honoring American made products, as it is preserving our global ecological system.
So, we’d like to propose this, DC: How about customizing reusable water bottles with the Saratoga Spring logo? Then we can honor the hard working Americans AND our water systems AND the environment, all at the same time!