City of Spokane encouraging us to give tap water another try

The next time you dig for change to buy a bottle of water from a vending machine or grab one on impulse from a small refrigerator near a supermarket checkout line, consider this: For the price of a single, 20-ounce bottle of water, you could fill up the same container with tap water once a day for more than 13 years. That’s just one of the messages the city of Spokane is trying to spread through a campaign that encourages citizens to choose water from their faucets over water sold in bottles. Drinking tap water isn’t only cheaper, it also is more environmentally friendly and could even be safer than bottled water, says Marshall Thompson, of the city’s water department. “Municipal water is regulated strictly by both the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Department of Ecology,” he explains. “Bottled water is not subject to these same rigid requirements. Their only requirement is to comply with the (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) as a packed food product.” The tap-water campaign evolved out of a water stewardship program started several years ago by Spokane’s water and wastewater departments and the city council and spearheaded by Chelsea Wood and Mayor Mary Verner, who was a city councilwoman at the time. The program’s early goals revolved around encouraging residents to conserve water. “Since that time, the Spokane Water Department has also used the program to help promote the value of tap water to the community,” Thompson says. Part of that promotion involves parking a tap-water trailer at community events and handing out free water to citizens. “The best time to talk about water is when people are thirsty,” Thompson says. At last summer’s Hoopfest, “we filled (or) refilled close to 10,000 water bottles for the public.” Thompson says such events are great venues for educating people on the advantages of tap over bottled water. For one, tap water is less wasteful. Thompson says the bottled-water industry requires 47 million gallons of oil to produce the1.5 million tons of plastic it uses every year. And while plastic bottles are in demand by recyclers, consumers throw away 86 percent of them, according to Food & Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that promotes clean water and safe food. (www.foodandwaterwatch.org) Tap water also is safe to drink, Thompson says. Despite occasional media reports questioning the vulnerability of municipal water supplies, Thompson rarely hears concerns from Spokane consumers over the water being contaminated by terrorist groups. “We are vigilant in our commitment to public health,” he says. “Tap water in Spokane consistently meets or surpasses all EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and Washington state Department of Health drinking water standards.” The city runs its own state-certified water quality laboratory, which constantly tests the water’s quality. Plus, municipal water simply tastes better, Thompson asserts. “At the (Spokane County) Interstate Fair last year, we held an informal water taste test between city tap water and a major brand of bottled water,” he says. “To their surprise, the overwhelming majority of participants preferred Spokane tap water.” Thompson says sometimes customers suggest that the free water handed out at events tastes better than the water that flows from their taps at home. “I mainly attribute the taste difference to the temperatures we serve water at,” he says. Most people with a preference for bottled water are accustomed to drinking it with refrigeration, and that’s how the city serves it from the tap-water trailer. “If you drink water—any water—at a cold temperature, it will taste better,” he says. Water flows from the tap at around 50 degrees, while refrigerated water usually hovers around 38 degrees. Thompson’s solution? “Keep a regular pitcher of tap water in the refrigerator,” he says. “It will taste better than bottled water at the same temperature and cost a lot less.”