At the Orioles game on Wednesday, amid a major heat wave scorching the East Coast, I couldn’t stop thinking about how water fountains should be accessible to everyone — and how we shouldn’t be forced to buy overpriced, polluting plastic bottled water.
Maryland’s heat index soared to 110 degrees, with oppressive humidity making conditions even more dangerous. In this kind of extreme heat — and in a world growing hotter every year — communities need reliable access to safe, free drinking water. That means more refill stations and working fountains, not a system that pushes people toward plastic bottles that harm both our health and the environment.
Gov. Wes Moore declared a State of Preparedness on June 23 ahead of the heat wave, urging Marylanders to stay hydrated to avoid heat exhaustion and heatstroke. But here’s the problem: How can people follow that advice when many public spaces offer no reliable access to drinking water? Across the country, and here at home, water fountains are often broken, scarce or missing entirely. Take the eight-mile stretch of the Baltimore Waterfront Promenade, where only a handful of fountains exist and several were reported broken last summer.
In public parks, transit stops and beaches, public water is often hard to come by. I personally toted four reusable filled water bottles to Ocean City for a beach day last weekend. Access to public water is even more essential for unhoused individuals and communities without the disposable income to purchase bottled water — and for many reasons that shouldn’t be their only option.
Plastic bottled water is expensive — hundreds to thousands of times more than tap, especially if you consider keeping up with hydration needs in this intense heat. But the price isn’t just financial. Bottled water also comes with a steep cost for our health, leaching microplastics and toxic chemicals into the water inside. One study found the average liter of bottled water contains 240,000 microplastics. Public water should be available wherever we go so we can avoid these risks.
Water fountains have long symbolized progress toward equity. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made the segregation of water fountains illegal, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 required water fountains be accessible at different heights. Access to water should not depend on the ability to purchase it from the bottled water industry that continues to profit from a basic human need. The bottled water industry is projected to reach $372.5 billion globally by the end of 2025.
In public spaces, parks, playgrounds and historic shopping districts, water fountains should be the norm. Refill and reuse is a rising movement: both a return to commonsense practices our grandparents knew — and a path forward toward innovation. Reusable water bottles are a great example. What started as a wellness trend now reflects a broader cultural shift away from single-use plastics toward products that protect human health and the planet. It’s also a growing market, driven by increased environmental awareness and demand for personable alternatives.
But access to refill is often denied outright. I expected to bring and refill my reusable bottle to watch the Birds take on the Texas Rangers on Wednesday during this relentless heat — only to find out that Camden Yards allows only a 20-ounce, sealed and manufactured plastic water bottle through the gates. Despite efforts to keep concession prices low with the Birdland Value Menu, fans are still limited to buying or bringing water in a single-use plastic bottle. And it isn’t such a crazy idea to permit reusables: New York City Council passed a bill that took effect last year allowing fans to bring empty reusable bottles into venues, saying the city can make it easier for people to do the right thing.
It shouldn’t feel like an unreasonable ask to make clean, accessible water available to everyone. Gov. Moore recently signed a bill requiring water fountain installations in newly built or renovated buildings — but that doesn’t solve the larger issue: Safe drinking water is a basic right, and we shouldn’t have to rely on plastic bottles that will almost certainly end up landfilled, burned or polluting our communities and the Chesapeake Bay — especially when more than 90% of plastic isn’t recycled.
Last year was the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. With summer just beginning, and with extreme heat now our new normal, Maryland can lead the way in bringing accessible water to all our cities and communities and help us move beyond the plastic that pollutes both our bodies and the planet.
Rachel Bustamante, a Maryland resident, is a campaign coordinator at the nonprofit Plastic Pollution Coalition.