Washington state takes bold step to restrict companies from bottling local water

State senate passes bill to ban new permits for water bottling operations, calling process 'detrimental to public welfare'

Washington has taken a major step toward becoming the first US state to restrict companies looking to extract, bottle and sell local water supplies.

On Monday night the state senate passed a bill that would ban new permits for water bottling operations. SB 6278 states "any use of water for the commercial production of bottled water is deemed to be detrimental to the public welfare and the public interest" and would apply retroactively to new permits filed after 1 January 2019.