Your July 21 article, "Bottled water under local fire" explored the implications of Mayor Nickel's decision to phase out city spending of taxpayers' dollars on bottled water. Nickel's choice is significant because it will help rebuild public confidence in Seattle's tap water, which is the first step in protecting our most precious natural resource from being privatized and exploited by corporate interests.

Over the last 20 years, corporations like Coke, Nestl/, and Pepsi have changed the way we think about water. The bottled water industry attempts to replace tap water with bottled water using pervasive and deceptive marketing to erode the public's confidence in tap water. They have successfully convinced many of us that the only place to get safe, clean drinking water is to buy it from them.

Maybe if more public officials choose to support municipal water systems and work to rebuild public confidence in tap water, ubiquitous vending machines will be replaced by functioning drinking fountains. Then citizens would have the option to drink water that flows freely from the tap, instead of paying for unhealthy soda or ridiculously overpriced bottled water. Contrary to what Joe Doss would have us believe, consumers don't need the option to buy bottled water in order to make healthy choices; consumers do need strong, well funded public water systems that ensure that cheap tap water is convenient and accessible for all.

Victoria Pascoe

Tacoma