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Subscribe to RSSThe National Park Service chief has said that his decision to block a ban on selling bottled water at Grand Canyon National Park was based on safety and contracts, but emails released Friday indicate an early concern was how Coca-Cola, a major water vendor as well as parks funder, would react.
"While I applaud the intent, there are going to be consequences, since Coke is a major sponsor of our recycling efforts," NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis said in the email exchange posted by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The watchdog group obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Jarvis then directed two deputies to further "talk about this before GRCA pulls the plug" -- GRCA being shorthand for Grand Canyon. He further noted that the president of the National Park Foundation, through which Coca-Cola and other private entities help with funding, "would like to host a meeting of the beverage reps, which makes some sense to me."
Coca-Cola did contact the foundation with concerns, National Park Service spokesman David Barna told msnbc.com, but "that just started the conversation."
"The initial plan to end sales of bottled water in Grand Canyon National Park raised more questions than it answered," he added.
On the other hand, Barna said, Coca-Cola's recycling campaign at the National Mall, part of the park service, "was more holistic, with the goal to recycle all bottles, rather than focus on one type" by banning it.
PEER earlier this year accused Jarvis of caving in to Coca-Cola, at which time he issued a statement that his decision in December 2010 to scuttle the ban "was not influenced by Coke, but rather the service-wide implications to our concessions contracts, and frankly the concern for public safety in a desert park."
The safety concern refers to the possibility that visitors without access to water could succumb to the heat.
In a statement, PEER said that argument "appears especially farfetched given that Grand Canyon had spent more than $300,000 installing 'watering stations' and made reusable containers available.
"Zion National Park, a desert park, banned plastic bottles more than two years ago with no reported ill effects," it added.
A second string of emails released Friday shows that the chief of commercial services for the park service directed other parks to avoid their own bans until further notice.
"A number of concessioners and bottled water suppliers have expressed concern over this initiative," Jo Pendry wrote last Jan. 11. "The Director has asked that we host a meeting with the water bottlers ... (and) also asked that no NEW initiatives be implemented until a Service-wide position is developed on this issue (e.g., no new water bottle bans!)"
The ban was championed as a way to reduce solid waste by Steve Martin, who retired as superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park earlier this year.
"Both the paper record is there for how widespread the understanding of what we were doing was, and the approvals," The Associated Press quoted him as saying last month. "That's what makes it so extraordinary. Right as we're moving to the finish line on a really excellent program, because of Coke's influence, it was scuttled."
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Hard to make a product like bottled water stink, but Mr. Jarvis sure did!
boycott coke !! boycott coke !! boycott coke !! boycott coke !! boycott coke !! boycott coke !!
i like coke
Sell bottle water, charge a dollar refundable deposit on the plastic. No empty bottle would ever be spotted. That is a job creator!
Dick-2100935
Never figured out why they haven't done that? It seems where common sense could help, it's ignored by the intellectuals!
Ahhhhhhhhhh William Root ...........
What Intellectuals? ... we're talking about the government ... and that's a "Intellectual Wasteland!" of incredible magnitude! ..lol
Dasani is just regular tap water. This information came out when Coke tried introducing it in the UK in 2004: they withdrew it after a month and cancelled its planned introduction to France and Germany. If the Park is supplying free water, why are people buying Dasani? Are they not aware it's municipal water?
Zion National Park introduced a ban on bottled water which got rid of 50,000 discarded bottles in the first year. Proportionally, based on visitor numbers, this would translate into over 80,000 bottles in the Grand Canyon National Park.
So, a private company is taking a public product and then arm-twisting a public park in an attempt to protect what must be obscene profits taken from customers who have no idea what they are buying. Something wrong here . . .
Intellectuals say there is no need for selling bottled water. It's the businesspeople who say you must or they will create problems.
the Grand Canyon is America's greatest natural wonder. Do we really have to have bottled water there?
I've never understood why people spend perfectly good money to buy bottled water when perfectly good potable water is available, especially when they're already paying taxes to have municipal water in the first place. Many bottled waters are nothing more than tap water.
That said, if the park is trying to reduce trash in the park they should ban all artificial containers, not just bottled water. No Pepsi, no Dew, no plastic-wrapped Twinkies, no plastic-bound sandwiches. Our parents ate sandwiches wrapped in butcher paper. Why can't we. OMG! Humans would have to be manning the snack shop!
Only the human species could complicate something as simple as having a drink of water . . .
You CEOs arguing and in charge of this situation while people are out of work and are facing hunger and cold should be ashamed. All of you.
If you do too much coke it will make your nose bleed.
I wouldn't know, I don't use coke. I just like the way it smells.
Bill Cosby asked his friend why he did coke? His friend replied, "It intensifies my personality." Bill said, "Yes, but what if your're normally an @!$%#?"
Richard Pryor said he feels like a new man when he does coke, and he wants some too.
I was at the Grand Canyon last week and there is no need to sell bottled water. The park has installed numerous "water filling stations" for people to refill their bottle with pure spring water. So there is absolutely no need for buying bottled water unless you're a major corporation that can coerce national parks to make water sales required.
As a resident of Northern Arizona, I must say you are exactly correct.
Nobody is making bottled water a requirement, but it should be there for those who choose to buy it. The retired superintendent of the Grand Canyon supported the ban to reduce solid waste. If the bottles had a recycle value, that problem should not exist. Some of you folks won't be happy until our government puts a limit how many sheets of toilet paper each person can use each day or puts limits on the time you may be out of bed. Don't you get sick and tired of our government starting to make the most basic of choices for all of us? I do.
Sorry Lanikai Ron, but plastic isn't 100% recyclable. Now, if Coke wanted to sell stainless steal refillable cans and water, that would be okay with me. However, I would hate to see places like the Grand Canyon continue to be filled with garbage, whether it be because of some nincompoop who thinks that the planet is his own personal trash can, o from a child not knowing better, or even a gust of wind.
I agree that Coke should not be a part of the decision making process of our public entities. However, I don't think banning the water bottles is not the answer and it is too much to ask of the government. They don't want to clean it up, it's what it comes down to. And whether they're 100% recyclable is irrelevant since water bottles are sold everywhere and the ones at the part are a very small percentage and won't make a difference. So they're recyclable enough. I understand cleaning the Grand Canyon is a huge job, but it's their job. Maybe they can device some sort of system of ensuring people dispose of their bottles properly, like maybe hefty fines for littering, and that's just the first thought off my head. I'm sure they can think of something.
No need to ban the sales or entry of bottles into the park - just charge a $5 deposit on any bottle purchased in, or brought into the park. Give the person a ticket or chit when they pay the deposit - return the fiver when they turn in the bottle and chit while leaving the park. There would be precious little cleanup of bottles required from park employees after that.
Lanikai Ron,
If you do not like the government making decisions for your activities in a National Park that belongs to the people - for the preservation of wildlife - then you can exercise your freedom by using as much toilet paper as you care to --- outside the park.
You come to my house, you follow my rules.
Mailman, there would be no need for a "chit." All they would have to do is return the bottle. I like the $5 per bottle deposit idea. I'm from Germany where this is how it's been done for decades. A quarter per bottle (beer, water, lemonade, etc.) and it's more than enough incentive to bring back the empty goods.
Greentimer ,
That is awesome that when we go to your house we follow your rules however the park ISN"T YOUR HOUSE its every citizens house. If i want to buy a bottle of water at a national park i damn right will. If you want to lose money and make a reusable container that is cheaper than a bottle of water then go ahead, but if you were able to make money on it Pepsi or coke would have already done it. If Coke wasn't selling bottles of water because "theres places to refill" than they wouldn't be in the National parks trying to sell it. The fact that they are there and making money means one thing....people are buying. If people stop buying the water than coke won't sell it anymore its that simple.
This is about CONSERVATION not about sensless government control, Linaki.
Why can't people be expected to BE PREPARED and BRING THEIR OWN SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT and TAKE ALL NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THINGS LIKE HUNGER, THIRST AND WILD ANIMAL ATTACK when they enter this (semi)WILDERNESS AREA the same as ANY OTHER WILDERNESS AREA?
(Bottled water is not a "necessary precaution". How my family handled this issue during our wilderness camping in the Boundary Waters was to bring a hand-pump filter and several Nalgene bottles. Not a shill for Nalgene, we just always thought they were the best for camping.)
Ryan Waller,
Why do you even want to come to the park, if you don't like the rules. There are plenty of private facilities that have wild areas and allow any kind of container you choose to drink from. The idea of national parks is to preserve some tiny undeveloped vestige of wildness to see what nature does without man's intervening hand.
Your desire to visit these places shows that you like them wild. Why would you not want your descendants to enjoy them also? Unreachable plastic trash continues to accumulate forever and destroys natural habitat and geology.
Ryan, you may wish to speak for all the people when you will damn well drink whatever you want wherever you want, and wish your voice to trump that government of the people, by the people and for the people.
As an American, you have every right to speak and vote against the people's wishes, and I hope you never lose that desire and that right, but you do not speak for the people. You do not need to be watching out for them, because they can take care of themselves. The constitution and laws of the land circumscribe your right to act against what the citizens have determined to be lawful.
Kyle-3120596
Kyle, the Grand Canyon Park cannot be in any way be compared to the Boundry Waters Canoe Area, BWCA is a "zero footprint" area whereas the GC is a modernized park. Also, you have to realize that not everyone want to drink water from a fountain for precieved health reasons, they are the ones that want "sealed" bottled water. Those types of people would never in a million years be interested in going to the BWCA, they are not survivalists, they are just common folk that want to spend a day visiting a National Park.
But if no one is there to sell bottled water people wont have empty bottles to throw into the canyon! What will they do with out trash to use to see if gravity works in a hole that big?
That's right! Ban bottled water sales! Because reusable bottles cannot be thrown away. Oh...wait...damn...
AnotherLBowman1 They already have some Darwin Awards that prove gravity works quite well in the "hole that big." No need to waste the bottles.
The first time I took in the awe inspiring sight of the primitive end of the canyon, no guardrails, just a dirt road down the way from little shack house where a ticket seller sat; I was suddenly filled with the stillness of knowing we don't really have a landfill problem at all!
they can sell bagged air
go to washington hot air is free there
Let them sell water and soda at the Grand Canyon. Just not in plastic. Make them use paper cups from a machine, just like they used to...no plastic straws nor plastic cup caps...that's all. Problem solved!
So how are paper cups better than plastic bottles? They degrade faster in the wild? I disagree Fishin4blahblah. I hope the Park Service sticks to their guns and doesn't cave under the pressure. Coke just gave the Park Service 500 million dollars. Now they are like, "hey you can't ban our water if we just paid you off!"
I think fishin was kidding.
Plastic doesn't degrade, it ends up in the rivers, which carry it to the oceans and eventually makes it to the Doldrums. Do yourself a favor and google search "plastic in the doldrums". This might open your eyes a bit!
Get rid of bottled beverages from all national parks and make souvenir waterbottles available for purchase at all park entrances and visitor centers.
Yeah, at $14 a pop (or more) as they are at zoos and theme parks. And where do those souvenir cups end up?...in the land fills in your home town. How many gigantic plastic soda cups have the grandparents bought my kids over the years? From The San Diego Zoo, Disneyland, Sea World, what-have-you...they never use them again. And because of the colors, you can't always recycle them.
Side story (sorry Dustin)...I had been in Quito, Ecuador (well, a tiny market town in the mountains) Biggest swap meet you'll ever see, tons of stuff, great fun (they really do eat guinea pigs). We got thirsty and bought a coke, glass bottles. But those are worth money. So they poured the drink into small plastic bags and gave us a straw. I have photos.
May not be a final solution, as not all plastics biodegrade. But maybe a jumping off point. (Badum ching...Grand Canyon, jumping off point...nevermind.
A plastic or metal water bottle can be found new for $3 or so in almost any city in America. Buy one BEFORE you get to the canyon.
So is there such a huge amount of littering of plastic bottles that it is worth loosing the support of this company? Yeah, they are getting paid also, but apparently they are also giving the park a lot of money. Are 10-20 plastic bottles (or however many) worth the millions generated (which also pays to employ people... probably at both Coke and the park)? Seems like a tempest in a coke bottle to me...
ANY amount is too much. Are you aware of the value (like character value) and the value (intangible) of conservation?
Who gives a $hlt? If they are getting recycled, big F-ing deal. You losers need to find more important battles to b*tch about. If Coke gave $500 in a donation to the park, then I think it is a pretty good thing for the park to let them sell bottled whatever they make. Again, who cares -- just pack it, pack it out.
*BANGSHEADONDESKREPEATEDLY*
Plastic bottles aren't 100% recyclable, not to mention, there is an issue with garbage polluting our national parks and wildlife spaces. Now, if you want to have a heap load of plastic garbage in your front lawn, as long as it stays there, I have no issue. However, I do have issue with protected areas being covered in garbage by yokels who don't care.
Maybe it's not so much about the plastic bottles as it is about a corporation buying influence at a govt entity and trying to get away with it. Protest works!!! Occupy The Grand Canyon.
Isn't the Coca-Cola Corp. owned by J.P.Morgan-Chase Bank? Do 2 of the CEO's still sit on the board of directors? With all the bank mergers of the "too big to fail" banks (see "Inside Job") it's hard to tell who the players are anymore and exactly what/who they are manipulating ....Giant monopolies and corporations that deem themselves too big to fail should be broken up.
I agree
This would be a non issue if stupid people would stop littering, especially in our National Parks. No need to blame a corporation or our government on this issue, this lies squarely on the shoulders of everyone who has ever littered, myself included. Yet, since becoming a well mannered adult I've gone way out of my way to help clean litter up. If walking in front of a business and find a piece of litter on the floor, safe enough to pick up and put into a trash can, then I do it. Same thing outside the home, business or anywhere else. No I will not go out there and pick up every piece of litter I can find, for we all know it would never be done.
Here's a novel idea. Why not create a National or World litter pick-up day, or call it, Earth Cleanliness Day or something catchy. This would be awesome, I can see it now, every business, school and government office closed for the day in order to clean the entire country of all its litter. 1 day a year would amount to 10 years of work to completely rid our land of all litter and in-turn returning these places to their natural state of cleanliness. The freeways would be empty while people would be everywhere picking up trash and litter to make this great country of ours cleaner than it has ever been, and it is quite a clean place to begin with here in the greatest nation in the world, The US of A.
Just an idea. An idea based on the principles of collective reasoning for a greater planet. One step at a time we can make great things happen, all we have to do is try, and think beyond the boundaries of the boxes set forth by past and present generations. Well, like I always say, its better to dream and hope for a better world than to sit back criticizing those trying to make a difference, especially when that difference is meant to help our environment keep its natural state. And no, I am not against criticizing politicians and the crooked people tasked to make decisions for the people, just against criticizing those who are genuinely interested in making a real change, for the people, for nature or for goodwill in general.
Thanks everyone for reading.
Why not do this on Earth Day?
Thank you for your stance against littering. Your idea sounds good on paper, but if littering is such an issue in the first place, then I doubt a volunteer cleanup program will work out either.
I suggest hiring more of what they call "conservation police" which are basically park rangers with the authority to fine you for breaking the laws of the wild (as decided by Man in the interest of conservation) or even arrest you if you are caught starting a forest fire or something like that.
Obviously the hiring cannot be the same as our regular boys-in-blue. Those hired MUST have a true love for, and desire to preserve, the wilderness, and it must be proven through previous actions. Voila, jobs.
Obviously none of you have ever hiked in the Grand Canyon. The trails themselves are tough enough---people who leave the trails have disappeared without a trace. There'd be so many dead city bozos in the canyon from a trash pick-up event that the park would be closed.
Cokes bottle water products are nothing more then purified municipal drinking water. Your tax dollars paid for it once and then you get to pay for it again. Coke is draining down the reservoirs and aquifers of communities at their own detriment. Farmers cannot irrigate crops, residents can't wash cars, water lawns, and pay increased water prices. The bottles litter our public lands and oceans. They fill our landfills with mountains of plastic. This was a good move by the NPS.
So...it's either free water in the desert...or bottled watered by contract, in which case you can get heat stroke...
Sounds like Coca-Cola @!$%#ed up.
The national parks should all be leaders in the environment preservation effort. People who want bottled water should bring it with them. The billions of plastic bottles that are trashed each year is a travesty. It is precisely like a small health food grocery chain in my state. About a year or so ago they stopped offering bags for all purchased items. You have to bring your own, or you can re-use one of the boxes that the store received shipments in. Cardboard boxes do recycle well. No one misses the plastic grocery bags. As a matter of fact, everyone loves this system. All those who profess to own tiny carbon footprints should be the leaders of this movement. And there are lots of these folks.
The national parks should all be leaders in the environment preservation effort. People who want bottled water should bring it with them. The billions of plastic bottles that are trashed each year is a travesty. It is precisely like a small health food grocery chain in my state. About a year or so ago they stopped offering bags for all purchased items. You have to bring your own, or you can re-use one of the boxes that the store received shipments in. Cardboard boxes do recycle well. No one misses the plastic grocery bags. As a matter of fact, everyone loves this system. All those who profess to own tiny carbon footprints should be the leaders of this movement. And there are lots of these folks.
I was at Yosemite this year and was sickened that stupid people think that it's ok to throw trash anywhere they pleased. I saw water and pop bottles stuffed into cracks of a tree even though there was a trash can only feet away. Ban the plastic. Keep the parks beautiful.
So Coke writes a BIG check that allows the park rangers to better control the park and that's bad? I'm sure they write a check FAR FAR bigger than what it costs for 10 years worth of prisoner trash pick up. everyone wants to cut off their nose as they're so engineered to think a private company writing a check to a government entity is ALWAYS a bad thing. Sometimes it is but be sure you're using your brain and sounds like park leadership was actually doing that. All you big posters...maybe you should write a check to replace what coke was going to spend? Didn't think so.
Require any plastic bottle sold at the park to have a dab of metallic sodium in the bottom of it. That way, when the water is consumed and the sodium is exposed to air, the bottle will burst into flame and be consumed on the spot. Hopefully while still in the hand of the idiot who buys bottled water when free water fountains are available.
Sodium reacts to oxygen---also in water. If you knew what you were talking about, you'd realize sodium and its relatives are stored in OIL to prevent combustion.
Coke is attacking the beauty of the US National Parks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BOYCOTT COKE !! BOYCOTT COKE !! BOYCOTT COKE !!
so !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they never turned the free water on ????????????????????????? say it ain`t so
Our NPs is already been too commercialized. Nowadays I go to the GC because am bringing some friends to their first time, but I really hate seeing all the cars, the overworked staff, the bad service. Give it back to nature as it was intended to be.
Several years ago, did a tour through Yellowstone on a bus. The tour operators told us through an agreement with the National park service, no bottled water would be provided on the whole trip. On a 10 day tour from Salt Lake city to Mount Rushmore, we had one bottled water in Salt Lake City, and none after. On a tour full of seniors with medications at the peak of Summer heat, The only water was at drinking fountains at toilet stops and hotels in the evening. The park service policy, is misguided and actually dangerous to some groups.
You should stay in Bremerton [where its nice and moist] and never leave, if life is too dangerous for you.
Many people commenting about this have never been hiking at the canyon, and never saw a bottle that somebody tossed over the edge (or even wind) that is in a spot that nobody can get to. I can also see the headlines "Man falls over edge retrieving bottle for $5 deposit". This is a case of a corporation using their $ to change a policy to put more $ in their coffers. No corporation should be involved in this decision, and the Grand Canyon is one of the most pristine places and should be protected.
Does anyone remember when the idea of buying water in a bottle was viewed as excessive? It wasn't that long ago. Now we expect it to be everywhere. No one is going to die because bottled water isnt available. Go to the drinking fountain!
Don't forget the garden hose.
no. although i love my country, we are generally lazy people. plastic bottles will be thrown about by the lazy folk and will create a problem that we will hear about years later on 60 minutes.