New water fountains to be installed near the entrance of 50 public parks across the city will be required to contain both a drinking fountain and, for the first time, a way to fill the reusable water bottles that many New Yorkers now carry.
The new law could cost up to $2 million to fully implement and so the Department of Parks and Recreation will have until 2035 to install a minimum of 50 additional fountains, each of which “would have to be installed within 100 feet of an entrance to the park where it is located,” according to the summary of Local Law 93, one of a flurry of City Council bills that became law on July 12.
Council Member Gale Brewer, the prime sponsor of the bill, is aware and proud of NYC’s water quality. But when it comes to her bill, quality alone isn’t enough.
“It’s one thing to have the resource and another to have access to it. It’s time for city agencies to get to work,” she said in a statement.
Now that her legislation is law, Brewer spoke to Straus News about what its enactment means for New Yorkers.
“The reason that we’re doing these water fountains is that many people, me included, walk around with a water bottle, but if you can’t fill it, what’s the point? The new ones would have both the drinking fountain and the water-bottle-filling fountain,” said Ms. Brewer. “We also want young people not to drink soda, but to drink water, and to have fewer plastic bottles all over the place, and one way to do that is to fill up your own container or just drink water.”
Brewer also recognizes the expense of this project, revealing that a single installation of a drinking fountain costs upward of $30,000 to $40,000. “It’s ridiculously expensive,” she laughed. “I can’t even begin to tell you.”
The price of the fountains, which includes renovations and plumbing, among other costs, contributes to the bill’s timeline of 10 years.
“You don’t just pass a bill,” said Brewer. “We have to negotiate these bills with the mayor’s office, and that’s why it’s a long time frame, because they have to pay for it, and you can see how expensive they are. They have to do the plumbing, they have to run the line, they have to figure out where they’re going to go. So it’s time and money.”
Brewer is working on upgrading water fountains throughout the Upper West Side, but explains how that is a separate endeavor through participatory budgeting. The 50 fountains that now have to be installed by 2035 will be paid for by the city.
Asked whether she plans to collaborate with sponsors from the bathroom strategy bill, another law enacted this week, Brewer says definitely, seeing as public restrooms and fountains often are sought collectively.
“Absolutely, but these water fountains have to be near parks, and I don’t think anybody knows where all the bathrooms are going to go, which is part of the reason for that bill,” said Brewer.
The Councilwoman is referring to one of the bathroom bill’s primary goals, which is to increase transparency when it comes to restroom capital projects, such as updates, timelines, and locations. Holding such projects accountable is meant to increase public bathroom accessibility.
“So, yes,” assured Brewer. “We would obviously work together if there was the opportunity to do so.”
“It’s one thing to have the resource and another to have access to it.” — Council Member Gale Brewer on passing Local Law 93, which requires drinking as well as bottle-filling in the new public fountains