St. Louis Post- Dispatch - City, some eateries drop bottled water

St. Louis — In a show of solidarity for plain old tap water, a handful of area restaurants are pledging to stop selling bottled water — and City Hall soon will follow.

"Tap water is the easiest, most convenient, environmentally responsible water," said Tim Embree, environmental aide to Mayor Francis Slay. And, he said, it's cheap.

The $15 billion bottled water industry has grown enormously in the past 20 years. One in five Americans now drinks bottled water exclusively, citing concerns about the safety of tap water. Per capita consumption has grown to more than 29 gallons last year from 13.5 gallons in 1997. Convinced that bottled water tastes better, connoisseurs compare brands like vintage Bordeaux.

But in St. Louis — home to the nation's best-tasting tap water, according to a 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayors competition — city employees will be encouraged to drink from the tap, starting this spring.

About two years ago, a Boston-based advocacy group called Corporate Accountability International, started lobbying governments and restaurants around the country to kick the bottled water habit. The group is asking city halls and restaurants to make a formal pledge, and today at the Schlafly Tap Room, five area restaurants will publicly do so.

"We believe that water is a public trust, and when it's treated as a commodity our environment, our health and democracy suffers," said Deborah Lapidus, a national organizer with the group. "The bottled water corporations are making people think the only place to get clean, safe water is from a bottle."

The group has focused on the big three: Coca-Cola, bottlers of Dasani; PepsiCo, bottlers of Aquafina; and Nestle, bottlers of Poland Spring, among other brands. Dasani and Aquafina waters come from municipal sources, something the group forced PepsiCo to disclose last year. St. Louis sells water from the city's treatment plant to PepsiCo's north St. Louis facility, which filters and sells it as Aquafina for $1.25 a bottle.

"People are spending more money for water than they spend on gasoline," Lapidus said. "The only reason people are willing to do this on such a widespread scale is because they believe it's healthier, cleaner and safer, and that's because of the clever marketing they've done to cast doubt on tap water."

The bottled water industry disputes that it has attacked tap water, saying the real competition comes from other beverages, not out of a tap.

"Our bottom line is bottled water is a very safe, healthy, convenient product. Consumers find it refreshing," said Joe Doss, president of the International Bottled Water Association. "Any action that would discourage consumers from drinking a healthy beverage is not in the public interest.

"We don't discourage tap water," Doss added. "We just think it should be a consumer choice."

At many restaurants, diners are indeed given choices.

"A lot of people want bottled water," said Vincent J. Bommarito, owner of Tony's in St. Louis. "It's the first thing we say: Good evening, do you want tap or bottled water?"

Bommarito says his sales of bottled water have shot up in the past decade, though he hesitated to sell it at first.

"It sounded like a hustle — to sell them water when they can get it for free," he added. "But customers want it."

Nearly 30 restaurants nationwide, however, have pledged to stop selling bottled water to consumers. In this area, the Schlafly Tap Room and Bottleworks, Pi, Terrene and MoKaBe's say the only water they will sell is sparkling water, cutting down on the plastic bottles that end up in the recycling bin or the trash.

"We have two filters on our main water lines," said John McElwain, owner of Terrene, in the Central West End, which has not sold plain bottled water since it opened two years ago. "It's something our customers appreciate. We're an eco-friendly restaurant, and this is one of the ways we can create a smaller footprint."

And, starting this spring, Embree said, City Hall will no longer buy bottled water for employees and plans to cancel the roughly $20,000 it has in contracts with area vendors.

A dozen other cities around the country, including Boston, Seattle, Minneapolis and San Francisco, also have decided to go tap-water only.

"We're working on a program that would mean that no government money goes toward buying bottled water," Embree said.

But city workers won't go without hydration.

"We're going to make sure," he said, "everybody has something to carry their water in."

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