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Gabriel Saenz roams around campus wearing a dolphin suit in order to grab students attention and ask them to text I
Gabriel Saenz roams around campus wearing a dolphin suit in order to grab students attention and ask them to text I <3 TAP to 69866. The university with the most texts will get funding to install more water filtration stations around its campus.

Green edition: UNM student group promotes tap water

Lobo BYOB addresses dangers of bottled water

The Lobo BYOB (bring your own bottle) campaign provides education to staff and students of UNM about the cleanliness of the tap water on campus versus the cleanliness of one-time-use water bottles. According to the organizers, the movement also focuses on the detrimental effects of plastic bottles on the environment.

The initiative aims to support the ‘Take Back the Tap’ campaign by Food and Water Watch, “a nonprofit organization that advocates for common-sense policies that will result in healthy, safe food and access to safe and affordable drinking water,” according to the organization’s website.

“The aim of the organization is to make clean drinking water available to the students without having them purchase the bottled water. The reason being, bottled water is dangerous to the environment,” said Gabriel Saenz, a senior in the sustainability studies program and a member of Lobo BYOB.

In 2007, 54 billion barrels of oil were used in the United States to produce and transport plastic bottles. That is enough oil to power 1.5 million cars for a full year, according to a press release issued by Lobo BYOB.

“Over 70 percent of water bottles that are purchased end up polluting our lakes and streams,” Saenz said.

On a local level, the majority of the bottled water is actually just tap water that is being filtered and transported, he said.

“This water is just as good as any of the Aquafina you can buy in any of the stores, and vast majority of other brands of water,” he said. “What they are doing is just filtering tap water in the first place. Bottled water actually ends up costing about 1500 to 2400 times more than tap water.”

Lobo BYOB is asking students to text “I <3 TAP” to 69866 to support clean water availability on UNM campus, Saenz said. By texting the number the student backs the campaign, and the school is entered into a contest held by Food and Water Watch.

“The university that gets the most digital signatures wins funding to install more of these bottled water filtration stations,” he said.

The signatures are also used by Lobo BYOB members to show regents and others at UNM that there is interest from students in having clean water available, Saenz said.

Members of Lobo BYOB are not only trying to install new water filtration plants, but are attempting to convince students not to use bottled water on campus, and instead use the filtration facilities provided by the University administration, said Lobo BYOB member Crystal Jester, an environmental planning and design major.

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“UNM has its own aquifer separate from the Albuquerque water system, and it is tested regularly,” Jester said. “Additionally, in many of the campus buildings there are hydration stations that have filtration systems. Our water on campus can be healthier than much of the bottled water sold in stores.”

So far, 56 colleges and universities have taken a stand for the public tap water and the environment by banning bottled water on campus, according to Water and Food Watch.

Humboldt State University recently became the first public university in California and the third public university in the nation to ban bottled water from being sold on campus, eliminating 50,000 bottles a year from the school’s recycling and trash systems,” according the statement.

Lobo BYOB members are working to keep campus stores from selling one-time-use water bottles and sell reusable water bottles instead, Jester said.

“One-time-use plastic bottles are poisoning and degrading our environment and threatening their health,” she said.

Sayyed Shah is the assistant news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at assistant-news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @mianfawadshah.

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