Business: 8:48 a.m. Campaign expands to reduce bottled water consumption

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Care for some water, fresh from the tap?

While sales of bottled water are booming in the United States, a handful of St. Louis restaurants on Wednesday joined the growing campaign nationwide to stop selling bottled water, instead serving customers the city’s finest municipal drink — tap water.

And St. Louis’ government plans to stop buying bottled water later this year, asking employees instead to drink from the city supply — borrowing a page from San Francisco and other American cities which have started similar practices.

At a news conference at the Schlafly Tap Room brewpub in St. Louis, activists, restaurateurs and a city representative outlined the problems they see with the nation’s bottled water consumption. They say less use of it will cut consumers’ costs, reduce environmental waste and show a commitment to the public water supply.

“It’s a lot easier to use something that’s coming from across your kitchen instead of across the country,” said Tim Embree, environmental aide to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. And, he pointed out, “We have the country’s best tasting water.” The U.S. Conference of Mayors decided last year that St. Louis had the best-tasting city water in a competition among more than 90 communities.

There’s no question Americans love their bottled water, with about 29 gallons consumed per capita in 2007. Bottled water sold about $12 billion wholesale in the United States last year, up nearly 8 percent from the year before, according to the International Bottled Water Association, based in Alexandria, Va.