May 24, 2016

Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior,
   Environment, and Related Agencies
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.  20515

Dear Representative,

On behalf of the more than 1.2 million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I am writing to express our support for Section 121 of the fiscal year 2017 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill regarding the ban on the sale of bottled water at national parks and urge you to oppose any attempts to remove this provision.

On March 2, 2016, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) submitted a FOIA request to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel regarding the National Park Service’s (NPS) December 14, 2011 Policy Memorandum that has permitted parks to establish a ban on the sale of plastic disposable water bottles.

The purpose of the ban was to contribute to the NPS’s Green Parks Plan that addresses “water and energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, reduction of waste streams, construction practices,” and other goals.  The memorandum requires the participating parks to develop “a system for annual evaluation of the program, including public response, visitor satisfaction, buying behavior, public safety, and plastic collection rates.”  Among other questions in the FOIA request, CAGW sought copies of the annual evaluations including how the ban on the sale of disposable plastic water bottles has affected the reduction of disposable plastic waste in each of the participating national parks.

After a series of follow-up emails and letters were sent to the NPS regarding the FOIA, CAGW has to date received no data that would prove whether or not the ban on bottled water is reducing waste in the national parks.  Since there appears to be no information from any park that the ban is reducing plastic waste after the policy was implemented more than four years ago, we believe the committee’s actions are appropriate and the provision should be retained.

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW