Jun 22, 2007 10:07 pm US/Pacific
SF Mayor Newsom Bans City Bottled Water Purchases
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
Mayor Gavin Newsom Friday issued an executive order to permanently phase out the purchasing of bottled water by the city and county of San Francisco.
The region's water delivery system, produced from snowmelt stored in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and flowing down the Tuolumne River, produces among the safest, purest drinking water in the nation, Newsom wrote in the directive.
By contrast, the bottled water industry has had profound negative environmental effects, Newsom said, its plastic bottles requiring oil to produce, and releasing one billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.
More than a billion plastic water bottles end up in California landfills annually, he said, taking 1,000 years to biodegrade and leaking toxic additives into the groundwater.
"Over the last decade, San Franciscans have responded to marketing campaigns to purchase bottled water and record amounts of bottled water have been purchased by San Franciscans at the expense of the environment," Newsom wrote.
Beginning July 1, all city departments and agencies will be prohibited from purchasing single serving bottles of water using city funds, unless an employee contract specifies usage. The ban will also apply to city contractors and city-funded or sponsored events.
By Sept. 30, all city departments or agencies occupying city or rental properties will have completed an audit to determine the viability of switching from bottled water dispensers to bottle-less water dispensers that use Hetch-Hetchy supplied water.
By December 1, all city departments will have installed bottle-less water dispensers, according to Newsom's order.
Waivers will be granted to by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission based on legitimate engineering, health and fiscal concerns, Newsom said.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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