By Harriet Blake

Drinking tap, not bottled, water is gaining momentum in restaurants from coast to coast. The “Take Back the Tap” campaign began in March in San Francisco, although some restaurants had already been forgoing bottled water on their own. It grew to include cities such as Alburquerque, Memphis, Omaha, Portland, Seattle and San Diego, and this past summer, the Big Apple.

The program is sponsored by Food and Water Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit consumer rights organization that looks at corporate control and abuse of the country’s food and water resources. The New York Take Back the Tap campaign also is sponsored by Riverkeeper, a Hudson River environmental protection group.

“Our goal is to make sure that people have safe and affordable drinking water,” says Food and Water Watch (FWW) executive director Wenonah Hauter. “Food and Water Watch promotes a clean water trust fund that protects [the country's] 1.5 million miles of water structure.”

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