DC Water Offers Federal Budget Help
W hen Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced in January plans to cut the House of Representatives’ office budgets as part of fiscal belt-tightening, news reports highlighted House bottled water purchases of $190,000 in the first quarter of 2010. District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority General Manager George Hawkins wrote the Speaker supporting elimination of this expenditure, offering free reusable water bottles for members of Congress and free water quality testing in any congressional buildings.
“If fiscal responsibility is your aim, I should point out that our water costs about a penny a gallon,” Hawkins wrote. “Bottled water costs hundreds of times more. Choosing tap also protects the environment from the harms of plastic bottles and helps support investment in the nation’s drinking water infrastructure,” he added. Hawkins also noted that water quality testing is a free service offered to all DC Water residential and commercial customers.