On a recent walk along New York City's Union Square Park, I came across a beautiful sight: walking in 95-degree humid heat, I saw fountains and fountains of cold, clean, and free drinking water. New Yorkers profess that their tap water is "the purest and tastiest" in the world. This summer, the New York Department of the Environment is rolling out an environmental education campaign on city streets to inform residents of just that–and to discourage people from buying bottled water.
On a recent walk along New York City's Union Square Park, I came across a beautiful sight: walking in 95-degree humid heat, I saw fountains and fountains of cold, clean, and free drinking water. A city employee, wearing a 'NYC Water' t-shirt, urged me to hydrate and drink some of "the best tap water in the world." Not used to such humidity and heat, I took this as a much-welcomed request (I live in San Francisco where it is 60 degrees as I write this).
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After some prolonged gulps, I heard the man explain the virtues of New York City’s tap water: "It's Healthy, It's Affordable, It's Green, and It's Convenient." New Yorkers profess that their tap water is indeed "the purest and tastiest" in the world. This summer, the New York Department of the Environment is rolling out an environmental education campaign on city streets to inform residents of just that–and to discourage people from buying bottled water.
Leon Kaye covered the story earlier this month, but to recap: The city's Water-On-the-Go program sets up water fountains in high-traffic, visible locations at public plazas, greenmarkets and parks around Manhattan. The Water-On-the-Go fountains first appeared on July Fourth and will continue to pop up around the city until Labor Day.
From places like the Catskill Mountains, clean (and free) drinking water flows into people's homes and out of faucet taps. But still, more than half of all Americans purchase $4 billion in bottled water each year–even though most bottled water is pretty much the same as tap water.
Article continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/07/nyc-water-on-the-go-bottles-plastic/
For more information on NYC Water-On-the-Go: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/news/outreach.shtml
