You Ask, Patch Answers

What’s Up With This ‘Free The Water’ Campaign?

Each week, we set out to answer a question on the mind of Concord Patch readers as part of our You Ask, Patch Answers column. This focus of this week’s column is the FreetheWater.org campaign and website that’s been making a bit of a splash of late.

  Looks like the Concord Residents for Consumer Choice group has a new website and branding campaign pushing for the repeal of Concord’s revolutionary bottle-banning bylaw. According to members of the group and a sentence at the bottom of website's homepage, FreeTheWater.org “is supported by Concord Residents for Consumer Choice, a local coalition of concerned citizens.” The original group, Concord Residents for Consumer Choice, is seeking to repeal a bylaw prohibiting the sale of non-sparking, unflavored drinking water in single-serve PET bottles of 1 liter or less. The bylaw was approved by annual Town Meeting last April, was ratified by the Attorney General’s office a few months later and took effect earlier this year. Concord resident …

•  3 Comments
• Photos (1)

Patrick Ball

9:27 am on Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Stephanie, if I'm not mistaken, it actually passed the first time (2010), failed the second time (2011) and passed again on a third try, in 2012. In 2010, Town Meeting approved a bottle ban that was not written as a bylaw. Arguing that there were "no teeth" to article, the selectmen opted against trying to enforce the ban, and it was later rejected by the Attorney General's office. -pb   more ›

Could Concord Have a Bottle Banning Comrade?

This spring, Arlington’s annual Town Meeting will take up an article seeking to adopt water-bottle banning bylaw to Concord’s.

Marco Rubio’s bottled water moment earlier this week probably grabbed more headlines, but there was another bit of bottle-related news that might have caught a Concoridan eye. According to reports from earlier this week, a trio of Arlington High seniors collected enough signatures to get a water bottle bylaw like Concord’s on the warrant for their town’s special Town Meeting this spring. See the full text of Arlington's article below. That move comes as some in Concord are readying their rebuttal to the ban, while others rally in defense of the ground-breaking bylaw. Concord resident Robin Garrison has a petitioner’s article on the Town Meeting warrant seeking to repeal the bottle bylaw. Meanwhile Concord on Tap, a local movement led by …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

Concord Prepares for 'Bottle Ban'

With the town about to bid adieu to bottled water, Concord On Tap Camelbaks hit shelves.

Time will tell whether Concord’s bottled water-banning bylaw, which goes into effect with the start of the New Year, will be more flash flood or 40-year storm.  Either way, local merchants are bracing for it by stocking shelves with Concord On Tap-stamped Camelbak reusable water bottles.  According to Jill Appel, the Concord On Tap campaign manager, the bottles, which come in eight different colors, sizes and materials, are available at a number of local shops and eateries, including: The bottles that hit the shelves last week are a one-time order, and they were going fast heading into the holiday, according to Appel. The Camelbak initiative is meant to support local businesses, said Appel, and to follow through on a promise made at annual…

• Photos (2)

Will the Bottle Ban be Concord’s New Year’s Resolution?

Even as the bottle ban’s effective date draws nearer, competing interests are playing a game of spin the bottle that has nothing to do with kissing. Meanwhile, there's an informational meeting for businesses this Wednesday.

  In Concord, banning bottled water has never been as easy as H2 No. And that continues to be true even now, after a bylaw prohibiting the sale of non-sparking, unflavored drinking water in single-serve PET bottles of 1 liter or less has been approved by annual Town Meeting and passed muster with the state Attorney General’s Office, which had tossed out a previous attempt. Among the community there remains a bit of uncertainty about the practical application of the bylaw, and town officials will look to provide information and answers provide information and answers about lingering questions before the bylaw takes effect on Jan. 1, 2013. To that end, an informational meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. this Wednesday, Dec. 5, at the Town House…

•  2 Comments
• Photos (2)
• Documents (1)