Cash-Strapped U Of California Spends Millions On Bottled Water

The University of California system, drenched in economic peril, has resorted to exorbitant student fee increases and significantly changed its admissions policies to ease its money woes.

But the dire finances of the system are still not enough to get it to drink tap water.

The New York Times reports that the UC system has purchased nearly $2 million worth of bottled water over the past two years.

At the Berkeley campus, officials said a total of $522,215 had been paid to Arrowhead for the three fiscal years that concluded in 2009.

Contrast that with the City of San Francisco, where bottled water has been banned in government offices. The move came after a 2006 investigation by The San Francisco Chronicle, which revealed that the city spent $500,000 a year on bottled water and supplies.

It's an odd situation, both for the broke system and the hyper eco-conscious Berkeley and San Francisco. Unsurprisingly, a movement called "I Love Tap Water" has been born at UC Berkeley to decrease bottled water spending.