Seattle's tap water also tastes way better than that stuff in bottles!

Seattle should be proud. We nead more political leaders to...well lead.

So many Americans are afraid of our own tap water. We have the safest, best-regulated, municipal water sources in the world. That's more than we can say about bottled water, which is only regulated when sold out of state.

The environmental factors of packaging aside - most bottles never see a recycling facility, where is that water coming from? Whose drinking water are we now purchasing?

Do yourself, your neighbors, and the world a favor by drinking tap. If you really need to, try a brita!

Great idea.

I heard a preacher one time say that he was in a supermarket somewhere, and there was this fellow with a cart full of bottled water. He went to the young man and informed him that, in most places, he could have that tapped right into his house.

In my region in the Netherlands we have an excellent water quality, which exceeds the quality of bottled water. Merely because tap water is cleaned and checked for many substances.

What about the use of Flouride? Is that in the drinking water there? I would never touch it if it is..

You can filter your tap water. Its simple, not very expensive and certainly cheaper and better for the planet than bottled water.

Hm San Francisco? I was there for holiday and they have the tapwater full of chlorine. Cola, Sprite and of course water, taste like a swimmingpool.

While I think this is a good idea, I don't agree on a mandate. The government- whether big or little- has no business making bottled water illegal.

The government isn't forcing the public to use tap water, it's merely not buying it for its employees. If the find it such a problem, they can bring bottled water. I say kudos. Quit your whinin', stop being so selfish, and start doing something for your planet.

Not nessicarliy. It is always better for the planet, but it is not always cheaper. Filters get expensive. I spend more on filtering my tap water than I did buying bottled in bulk. But, filtering tap is safer, tastes better, and is more eco friendly.

From the article, it sounds like the state was providing bottled water for employees, and now it's not. That's not facisim, it's business.

Why are they buying bottled anyway. Where I work we have a "water cooler" that is plumbed into tap water and merely filters and cools/warms it.

And I'm in the "backwards redneck" state of Indiana.

Unfortunately it is. And the ion is small enough to slip through the filters at home. They're now starting to put it in the bottled water too.

Seattle does use fluoride in the tap water. Fluoride is linked to fibromyalgia (AKA, a fluoride overdose).
http://www.earthclinic.com/CURES/fibromyalgia.html

What a shock. An idiot commenting who didn't read the post fully.

It's not a law. It's something that should have been done a long time ago. And that great bottled water some of the commenters are applauding is re-packaged tap water with sodium added to it. Yum! Salt.

Thats good to hear, but also worries me. I go to a small alternative school in Seattle, the building we are in was constructed in the early teens, and remodeled a few times since. Apparently the last time it was remodeled lead was still used a piping, so we cant drink out of the fountains of faucets. We used to have water coolers in the halls, but they were taken away by the district because the problem was "fixed", but we still have lead in the system. This whole thing scares me because if the school district decides the same thing, we will never have clean water available.

First of all, to the people who have only negative things to say about this...like people who refer to this sort of decision as fascism... you should just go stuff it, its people like you with your inflexibility and slippery slope attitude when it comes to this sort of topic that stops innovative and potentially helpful ideas from getting anywhere.

second... its not like they cut off all availability of bottled water and or band it... in fact i wouldn't have even known the city had decided to do this if i hadnt stumbled upon this , but thats just my point of view... maybe they really are refusing some of us spoiled US citizens bottled water... but i doubt it.

third... the whole issue with the fluoride being in the water is actually rather pointless to me. i live in an area just outside of Seattle that refuses to put fluoride in the water... and it costs us a hell of alto more to get our water fluoride free than to just allow the small (un-dangerous) amount of fluoride to be added personally i feel te benefits of this whole idea out way the draw backs... then again im still just a teenager.

ps. The school systems probably wont take on this decision as well.

sorry to write so much and take up so much space !

you're an uniformed idiot chocolate also kills dogs

EXCELLENT IDEA GUYS!!! WAY TO GO!!

I am a strong advocate of banning ANYTHING containing any plastic what-so-ever. C.P.B.M (Canadian Plastic Banning Meow) is an excellent not for profit organization which specializes with removing the heads of americans from their own asses in light of hopefully someday making them realize there is already a pile of garbage floating around in the pacific ocean the size of texas. YEE HAW!!!

Otherwise, good goin Seattle!

It's a good thing we have our governments to think for us. I can only imagine what independent thought would lead to.

Ok... why can't we just drink from the tap... Thats where botled wter is frm!!! god! ppl these dys are so ... so .. STUPID!

You don't know what Facism is...there is a certain level of control or boundaries that have to be set for the survival of a race. Would you let a little kid continue to eat bowls of raw sugar 3 times a day just because he should be free to? You are still free to drink filtered water, you just have to get off your lazy ass and filter it yourself rather than pay CocaCola to do it for you.

As humans, few things unite us with the same immediacy as our common concern for the water we need for survival. When people of means start removing themselves from the concern of public water the community suffers.

Regardless of your position on the pros or cons of municipally engineered ( i.e. Flouridated or otherwise adulterated ) vs "Enhanced" bottled water, civic discourse and struggle over these issues unites us and creates community in a way that is priceless. I salute efforts to undermine the ridiculous runaway popularity and conspicuous consumption of bottled water. Fat cat polluters of public water may always be able to further undermine the public water system by sourcing their water from elsewhere, but should we all chase them in their reckless abandon of the community ?

Okay, folks...
I live in seattle, and the tap water tastes okay, here. In any case, as has already been said here, they haven't "banned" any bottle water--they just decided to stop having the tax-payers pay for another city-employee perk.
The tap water in Seattle is not as good as the tap water that we had in Anchorage (Alaska), which came from glacial runoff that was naturally settled and filtered in Lake Eklutna. However, prior to the Lake Eklutna Water Project, Anchorage got its tap water from dozens of well-heads. Even after treatment, it was the nastiest stuff that I ever tasted--it was full of minerals (like iron and sulphur) and it reeked.
I have traveled many places in the world, and pretty much all over the United States, to large cities and small towns. There are some places, especially in towns along the Mississippi River, where they water is so chlorinated it burns your eyes.
Additionally, there are several cities and towns where the tap water is yielding traces of drugs, both pharmaceutical and recreational, such as methamphetimines, (in some areas, a portion of the tap water is--wait for it--recycled--and I don't mean that in the holistic, scientific "everything is eventually recycled" way, either). So, in some locales, it may be in your best interest NOT to drink tap water.
Be sensible--it's a good rule.