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National Park Service reverses ban on bottled water

Utah’s Zion, Arches were among first to bar sales in effort to reduce waste<br>

(John Marciano | Zion National Park) A Zion National Park staffer fills a bottle at one of four water filling stations installed as part of an effort to rid the park of disposable plastic bottles. On Wednesday, the National Park Service rescinded the 2011 policy that allowed Zion and several other Utah parks to ban sales of bottled water.

Americans pitch at least 50 billion plastic water bottles into the trash each year, generating one of the largest streams of avoidable consumer waste. 

The National Park Service did its part to reduce that stream with a 2011 policy  allowing local park officials to ban sales of bottled water, but on Wednesday the agency unexpectedly reversed that policy, effectively ending bottle bans at several Utah national parks, including Zion and Arches.

“While we will continue to encourage the use of free water bottle filling stations as appropriate, ultimately it should be up to our visitors to decide how best to keep themselves and their families hydrated during a visit to a national park, particularly during hot summer visitation periods,” said Michael T. Reynolds, the service’s acting director, in a news release.

The announcement noted that such bans removed the healthiest beverage choice from the shelves of park concessionaires, while still allowing sales of bottled sweetened drinks. The policy reversal came after a review in close consultation with Interior Department leadership, the release said, and three weeks after the Senate confirmation of Interior Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt.

Bernhardt is a former lobbyist with the law firm Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck, which has represented one of the largest water bottlers in the United States, Nestlé Waters, according to the Washington Post. Nestlé distributes the Deer Park brand, the newspaper reports.

Not consulted, however, was the National Park Conservation Association, which supported the bottle ban, or officials at Zion National Park, among the first to adopt it. Zion spokesman John Marciano said the ban was put in place only after efforts to ensure that park visitors — now logging nearly 400 million trips a year — would have adequate access to water to stay hydrated while exploring the park’s hot, arid environment.

“We have four filling stations, and we sell so many reusable plastic bottles,” Marciano said. He said he had been instructed to refer further inquiries to higher-ups in the National Park Service.

“The policy is being discontinued to ensure every visitor has the safest and healthiest beverage options possible when visiting a national park,” wrote Washington-based spokesman Jeremy Barnum in a response to emailed questions. “The 2017 omnibus appropriations bill specifically required the NPS to review the policy and suspend further implementation.”

Barnum’s response did not address whether the bans on bottled water sales caused problems or whether the bottled water industry had applied pressure on Interior Department.

The Sierra Club denounced Wednesday’s move, saying it putting commercial interests ahead of environmental concerns.

“The reversal is but a symbol for [the President Donald Trump] administration’s larger attacks on environmental safeguards and protection of public lands,” said Athan Manuel, Sierra Club’s public lands director. “Our national parks have and should continue serving as an example of how to treat our natural environment. This action is in clear contradiction to this agency’s mission of protecting the planet.”

The 2011 policy set up a process for parks to implement a ban, requiring superintendents who wanted to ban bottles to calculate how much waste would be eliminated and to develop plans to ensure visitors had access to reusable bottles and filling stations. Twenty-three park units in the 417-unit system adopted a ban, including Arches, Canyonlands and Grand Canyon national parks and Dinosaur, Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments.

Parks will continue to promote recycling of disposable bottles, which was a prominent feature of the 2011 policy directive that enabled bans.

“Such a policy will allow NPS and park partners to reduce their environmental footprint, introduce visitors to green products and the concept of environmentally responsible purchasing, and give them an opportunity to take that environmental ethic home and apply it in their daily lives,” wrote then-Director Jonathan Jarvis in Policy Memorandum 11-03. 

The National Park Conservation Association endorsed the bottle ban, and a group spokesman said he was baffled by its sudden reversal.

The ban, said David Nimkin, the association’s Southwest regional director, “seemed like a sensible approach.”

“It reinforced the idea for people to stay hydrated while they visited the park,” Nimkin said. “It was another reminder that plastic water bottles are wasteful and contribute to the growth of trash and disposable refuse in the parks.”