Better Than Bottled

Why buy bottled when you can pour yourself a glass of some of the best water in the nation just by turning on the tap? Here are five of our favorite reasons why Seattle’s drinking water is better than bottled:

It’s Protected and Safe
Because SPU owns and manages both of its watersheds, we have unique control of the protection and quality of our water. This keeps our drinking water supply safe.

Tap water is carefully regulated by federal and state health agencies. To ensure the safety of our drinking water, SPU’s water quality lab tests an average of 50 samples per day, 365 days a year.

It’s Fresh and Pristine
Many cities source their drinking water from local rivers–the same rivers that are used for recreation, industry, and commerce. Seattle’s water is different. We capture our water as rain and melted snow in forested mountain watersheds. We have one of the purest water supplies in the nation.

It’s Affordable
Bottled water can be up to 1,000 times more expensive than tap water. Seattle’s drinking water costs less than a penny per gallon. The average cost of a gallon of bottled water is around $1.50. That can add up fast!

It Tastes Great
We provide just enough treatment to keep your drinking water safe, clean, and tasting good. We even have a taste test panel that meets twice a month to taste and evaluate our drinking water.

It’s Better for the Environment
It takes more than twice as much water to produce a plastic water bottle than it does to fill it. And only about 20 percent of those bottles get recycled. The rest end up in landfills or floating in our waterways and will take hundreds of years each to decompose.