Your Water Bill is Rising: The Costly Stream of Bottled Water in The House of Representatives
“Your water bill for this month is $86 million.”
If I told you this, I can imagine that your reaction would be far from positive. And, no, that’s hopefully not what you got charged for taking extra long showers in June, it’s the total amount that The House of Representatives has spent on ‘water’ from 2011 to 2022. As taxpaying Americans, we deserve to know where our dollars are going. Expenses like paying interns or renting equipment are what I would consider essential for The House to perform its duties at full capacity, but in my exploration of the House Office Expenditure Data from ProPublica and biographical information, there is an enormous amount spent on ‘water.’ As citizens, we must ask ourselves, “Where are our representatives spending money? Are these expenses necessary? Are democrats staying true to their sustainability platforms?”
Between the years of 2011 and 2022, The House of Representatives spent a total of $86,881,165 on what is categorized as ‘water.’ This number is shocking to me as I assume it probably is to you. I wondered, “What does ‘water’ actually mean?” To answer this question I looked at the top 10 places where the most money was spent on ‘water.’
The most frequent purchase comes from “Deer Park, " also called “Deer Park Water.” You’ve probably seen the name Deer Park in your grocery store while strolling down the bottled water aisle. From 2011 to 2022 the House spent $41,543,581 on Deer Park bottled water. With a 12-pack of 16.9 oz Deer Park water bottles costing around $12.93, that means over 3 million packs of water bottles could have been purchased. Following behind Deer Park is ReadyReFresh by Nestle, a bottled water and beverage delivery service that also offers water filtration services. With a fleet of carbon-neutral electrical vehicles, ReadyReFresh delivers water to your doorstep. Over the course of 2011 to 2022 the House spent $13,219,218 on ReadyRefresh services. One can hope that part of that total went to water filtration, but based on the surplus spent on Deer Park bottled water, it seems unlikely. The other top ten payees include Crystal Springs, Cooler Smart, Hague Quality Water of MD INC, Waterlogic East LLC, and Quench USA LLC. Out of the top ten payees, the only company that does not provide bottled water or dispensers is Hague Quality Water which provides water softening and filtering services. The amount spent on filtering services pales in comparison to the amount spent on packaged water. In my research, I was unable to find any information about ‘CoolerSmart’ which is undoubtedly suspicious. Is ‘CoolerSmart’ really a water expense or is it a front for shady spending? It’s likely legitimate, but what’s become clear is that spending on bottled water and dispensers is excessive. Has this number always been so high or has spending on bottled water decreased in modern times where sustainability has become a hot-button issue?
Looking at spending on water from 2011 to 2022 we can see that spending peaked in 2019 at $9,568,882. There was a significant drop-off in 2020 but spending increased slightly after 2021 with $6,225,432 spent in 2022. 2020 was a year characterized by social justice movements and climate activism which could be an explanation for decreased spending, but with $6 million-plus spent in 2022 alone, we certainly cannot claim that the House is consuming water sustainably. To put this in perspective if we assume that a bottle of water costs around a dollar that means that the 9,128 employees at the House of Representatives in 2022 could each consume about 657 bottles of water. Staying hydrated is important and we want our country’s leaders to be fit to serve, but at what cost? I’m sure they’ve heard of HydroFlasks or the plethora of other reusable water bottles on the market, so why are they spending a ridiculous amount of our money on packaged water? Why don’t they put better filtration systems in place so they wouldn’t have to buy water bottles or dispensers at all? We may never know the answers to these questions, but it has become clear that taxpayer money is probably not going where we think it is.
Let’s talk about the environment. The Democratic Party has consistently placed a larger focus on climate change and sustainability than the Republican Party. Does their spending on water align with this platform?
The answer is not at all.
From 2011 to 2022 there has not been a single year where the Republican Party spent more than the Democratic Party on water. To add shock to this statement, the difference in spending between Democrats and Republicans is vast with the average spent by the Democratic Party ($5,344,086) greatly surpassing the average spent by the Republican Party ($1,888,447). As it turns out, the Democratic Party’s environment platform,
“Democrats believe that climate change poses a real and urgent threat to our economy, our national security, and our children’s health and futures, and that Americans deserve the jobs and security that come from becoming the clean energy superpower of the 21st century,” is not exemplified with their spending on packaged water.
Water isn’t the only thing going down your drain, it’s your money too. With over $86 million spent on what can only be euphemistically described as “water,” it is clear that taxpayer money is spent in places where it doesn’t need to be and where you probably never could have guessed. This revelation isn’t just a drop in the bucket; it’s a tidal wave of taxpayer dollars seemingly lost in the abyss of convenience. From Deer Park bottled water to ReadyRefresh doorstep delivery, the sheer volume of spending on bottled water elicits more than just raised eyebrows — it demands an urgent interrogation of priorities.
If this reaches a member of The House, I would like to introduce you to these really nifty things called reusable water bottles, and to make it all the more convenient for you, here’s a link to my favorite one. And to the average reader, I hope this article brought to light the realities of spending by The House of Representatives and encouraged you to question how your money is actually spent.
