Virginia Falls Off the Wagon
Last week, among government workers of the commonwealth of Virginia, the hot topic around the water cooler is most certainly the water cooler itself. Governor Bob McDonnell proudly defied one critical portion of former Governor Timothy M. Kaine’s plan to “green” Virginia by reversing Kaine’s ban on bottled water. (GULP!) One step forward, two steps back. At a time when many cities across the country are moving forward by reconsidering their relationship with bottled water, McDonnell wants to move all of Virginia backward. Virginia is a bottle-aholic.
Virginia has fallen off the wagon. After quitting bottled water under the stewardship of former Governor Timothy M. Kaine, the commonwealth is back on bottled water thanks to Governor Bob McDonnell's reverse on the ban.
The ban that Kaine initially put into place was imposed on the purchasing of individual bottles of water for official government functions and events. His decision was based on the big picture: buying bottled water is expensive — certainly more so than filtered tap — and the plastic bottles leftover are an environmental disaster.
Kaine made his decision to ban the bottle based on data that many mayors have also considered in their recent decisions to have their cities go bottle-free. His water plan saved a modest amount of money, but it also looked beyond immediate fiscal needs and kept the future in mind.
The first step in curing bottle-aholism is accepting the fact that you’re a bottle-aholic. Banning bottled water now allows us to start preparing for the future now. McDonnell defends his reversal by pointing to the 3,719 jobs in the bottled beverage industry that would be eliminated by the ban and mentions the tax revenues collected by Virginia from bottled water. Bottle-aholic. What about the job creation and overall economic growth that would result from reinvesting in water infrastructure? Whether or not one sees the mandate as negative depends on whose money is more important: the industry’s or the taxpayer’s.
The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) is grateful to people like McDonnell because they continue to benefit from the neglect of our public water systems. IWBA has us hooked on their product, and they don’t want us to quit. And, sorry, Stacey Johnson (McDonnell’s spokesperson), but providing recycling bins for the waste you create does not make you an environmental steward. It just makes you agree with IBWA’s Joe Doss, who is ever so happy to have his bottles back in your office.
If you’re not happy with Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s decision to reverse the ban on bottled water, you can do something about it!
-Rich Bindell