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Food & Water Watch and Riverkeeper Launch Take Back the Tap - New York

Chefs Urge Restaurants to Give Up Bottled Water

New York, NY – Food & Water Watch and Riverkeeper kicked off their Take Back the Tap – New York campaign at the Bowery Hotel’s Gemma. In honor of Restaurant Week, the two partner organizations are calling on New York restaurants to celebrate and support New York’s world famous tap water by taking bottled water off their menus. The campaign joins forces with New York City government and prominent restaurateurs, including Gemma’s Sean MacPherson, to highlight the social, economic, and environmental problems with bottled water; the need for increased funding for public tap water; and the importance of protecting drinking water at its source.

“Big corporations take our water for practically nothing and tell us it’s chic and healthy when they sell it back to us in a pretty bottle for exorbitant prices.  New York City tap water is just as safe and healthy as bottled water, and is a far more cost-effective choice,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter.

“All Americans should have access to safe, affordable tap water. New Yorkers are fortunate to have one of the best tasting and safest water supplies in the world.  But we need to work together to protect it. The first step towards accomplishing this is to compel Congress to create a trust fund to rebuild and upgrade our water infrastructure,” said Hudson Riverkeeper and Riverkeeper President Alex Matthiessen. 

Gemma has led the way on water sustainability in New York by taking bottled water off its menus, installing a new filtration system, and pledging to educate customers about the benefits of tap water over bottled water. Take Back the Tap – New York will encourage 1000 New York restaurants to follow Gemma’s lead and pledge to support municipal water instead of the bottled brands.  Other city restaurants that have signed the Take Back the Tap pledge include Il Buco, Bobo, Pure Food & Wine, Gust Organics, Broadway East, Del Posto, Angelica Kitchen, Jimmy's No. 43, the Diner, and Marlow and Sons.

"To spend fossil fuel trucking water around the world is absurd. Water should be as local as anything gets. That's why we're taking the lead on this, and encouraging other NYC restaurants to do the same,” said campaign endorser and Del Posto co-owner Joe Bastianich.

"We have a real commitment to sustainable water use at Gemma. I've long been concerned about the waste caused by the bottled water industry. The environmental aspect, between the production, transportation, and disposal is huge. Plus, we're proud of the quality and taste of our tap water here in New York, said Eric Rosenfeld, Gemma General Manager.

Restaurants that take the pledge will be featured as “water conscious” in the Eat Well Guide, a free online directory listing thousands of family farms, restaurants, markets and other outlets that offer local, fresh and sustainable food in the United States and Canada. www.eatwellguide.org.

Food & Water Watch and Riverkeeper will work with city government officials and local institutions to reduce consumption of bottled water in institutions and ensure that public water fountains are upgraded and maintained.  Citing estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the nation will fall $22 billion short in funding necessary to repair and upgrade water treatment plants, pipes, and other infrastructure, the groups are calling on Congress to set up a trust fund to support our aging water systems.   

New York state’s water needs outpace its current ability to fund projects by a large margin. Under current budget projections, New York will have only 55 percent of 2007’s resources available for 2008 spending. Meanwhile, federal contributions to New York’s clean water funding efforts have decreased by 47.8 percent since the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, the primary federal source of such funding, was fully implemented in fiscal year 1991 and 65.9 percent when adjusted for inflation.

“New York City’s water supply system is an engineering marvel: a complex, unfiltered, and largely gravity-driven system of reservoirs, aqueducts, pipes and dams that delivers 1.2 billion gallons of clean, clear, high-quality drinking water to more than 9 million people throughout New York State each day,” said DEP Commissioner Emily Lloyd. “This campaign draws attention to this incredible system and will help ensure that New Yorkers consume more of the city’s world-class water.”

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer rights organization based in Washington, D.C. that challenges the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources. Food & Water Watch is asking restaurants across the country to take back the tap.  Visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect the ecological integrity of the Hudson River and its tributaries, and to safeguard the drinking water supply of New York City and the lower Hudson Valley. Visit www.riverkeeper.org.

Please visit www.takebackthetap.org/ny for more information on the campaign.