City Water Campaign Tries to Tap into Bottled H2O Market Updated August 7, 2010 11:23am

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By Yepoka Yeebo

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

UNION SQUARE -The city is trying to wean New Yorkers off the bottle.

A campaign to convince dehydrated Manhattanites to quench their thirst with tap water instead of buying the bottled stuff.

The Department of Environmental Protection's Water-on-the-Go campaign is hooking water fountains onto fire hydrants in parks and plazas, trying to spread the message that the city has the second best tasting tap water in the nation.

More than 200 people visited Union Square fountains in two hours on Friday, according to volunteers at the stand.

"I grew up on New York water," said fountain user Margot Allen, 49.

"It's clean, it's cold and I prefer it."

New York placed second in the American Water Works Association taste test in June, beaten only by Stevens Point, Wisconsin, for flavor. There is even a bottled version of the city's tap water.

"It actually tastes good, I don't even taste chlorine," said Melissa Beckman, 54.

The campaign, which goes on until Labor Day weekend, also comes with 'Drink NYC Water' glasses and coasters.

The city's water comes from a watershed 125 miles away and travels through aqueducts to get to homes and businesses. New York is one of only five US cities with water so well protected it doesn't need to be filtered to be drinkable, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

DEP spokesman Farrell Sklerov said since 1997, the city has bought 110 thousand acres of land in upstate New York to keep development away from water sources.

"The water goes through more than 500,000 tests," he said.

"At a penny a gallon, it's a thousand times less expensive than bottled water."