Dear Friends,

Seattle enjoys some of the world’s best public water, born in the pristine watersheds of the Cascade Mountains. It meets or beats the quality of expensive bottled water.

Yet each year, Americans consume about 31.2 billion liters of bottled water, requiring nearly 900,000 tons of plastic made more than 17 million barrels of oil. That adds up to more than 2.5 million tons of greenhouse gases.

As a city, we have an opportunity to lead by example and make a difference for the future of our planet. That is why I'm asking all of you to consider kicking the bottled water habit and switching to our city’s own water supply.

As part of that effort, this afternoon I will be announcing an executive order that will phase out the purchase of bottled water for city-owned facilities and city-sponsored events by the end of the year.

This order will not affect private purchases of water by city employees. But I do encourage everyone to make the switch to tap water. Through the remainder of the year, we will work with all city facilities to ensure that any local necessary water quality issues are addressed.

Exceptions to the bottled water policy may be made in cases when there are no reasonable alternatives to access safe drinking water, when there are hydration requirements for employees working outside of city facilities, or other legal or contractual issues exist.

If you have any questions about water quality issues in your facility, please contact SPU at 206-684-5800, press option 2.

Thank you all for making a difference for our environment. And enjoy the water!

Sincerely,


GREG NICKELS
Mayor of Seattle

Posted: March 13, 2008