Gov. Gregoire on Monday announced $38 million in proposed federal dollars for about two dozen drinking-water projects, including a couple in Ferry and Pend Oreille counties.

Normally, such grants are little-noticed except by public works officials and local folks who no longer have rusty or boiled water to drink. These are not the sorts of things that have people chanting on the capitol steps.

Now they do. The nationwide "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign is visiting Olympia this week to urge Gregoire to push for yet more federal drinking water dollars. Why? Because good drinking water from the tap means fewer bottled water bottles clogging landfills.

The group also wants the state to stop buying bottled water. And it's tired of seeing all those little plastic bottles sitting beside government officials at meetings.

"When our public officials are drinking bottled water themselves, it really sends a contradictory message," said the group's Carolyn Auwaerter.

Earlier this session, state Rep. Maralyn Chase, D-Shoreline, proposed HB 1859, which would have banned any state agency from buying small petroleum-based plastic beverage bottles for use in state buildings or at state-sponsored events. And by 2012, the bill would have banned anyone in Washington from selling or distributing such bottles, unless they were compostable. The bill died in committee.

---

---