PORTLAND, Ore. - With budgets tight, more people are cutting out bottled water to save money. A new poll found one-third of people have now switched to tap water.

So what are City of Portland and Multnomah County workers drinking on your dime? Lots of bottled water.

San Francisco and Seattle banned it.  New York City phased it out. So why do Portland and Multnomah County - known for being so green - still buy bottled water?

David Shaff of the Portland Water Bureau is trying to reverse the trend. "I think most Oregonians and certainly most Portlanders would say, 'Bull Run - are you kidding? We have the cleanest water in the country.'"

A whopping $148 million a year is spent to ensure the Portland Water Bureau keeps the city’s water “pure from the forest to the faucet” as their saying goes.

Water from Bull Run is so good that in the 1980s it was bottled and sold. Today, it's the foundation of Hot Lips Sodas and it is always offered - free - from the dozens of famous Benson Bubbler drinking fountains around the city.

But for Multnomah County alone, KATU News tallied two years worth of bottled water expenditures. Uses included bottles for field crews, delivery for offices and filtration systems.

Multnomah County's bottled water tab adds up to at least $21,000 so far in 2009, and $32,000 for 2008.

Portland has spent $41,000 on bottled water in 2009. That's $8,000 more than in 2008.

That has Shaff attention at the water bureau: “I'm surprised we would be spending that much on bottled water in the city of Portland,” he said.

Especially since Shaff switched City Hall to water coolers that run off the tap. And in the Portland Building, employees joined "water clubs" to pay out-of-pocket for their water cooler.

Teresa Huntsinger with the Oregon Environmental Council didn’t see the logic in the bottled water purchases. “It seems like it would make a lot more sense for the city to spend that money for their own Portland water bureau," Huntsinger said. "Why spend money on something when you can get it for free?”

Huntsinger said the totals may not sound like much, but reasons for cutting bottled water are crystal clear to her when taking in the associated costs.

“You have not only all the resources that go in to those bottles, then you have all the resources in to shipping them around and then some of them end up in the landfill,” she said.

There's also the cost comparison – or lack thereof.

“We'll sell you three gallons for a penny, when you can buy an 8-ounce bottle at your local grocery store for 99 cents,” Shaff said.

There are some changes being made. Shaff and his water bureau employees use glass restaurant-style water carafes for meetings and they pay to send a somewhat portable city-fed water system called “WES” to large events.
 
WES, a simple pipe system with a row of spigots attached, connects to a fire hydrant and provides portable water without the plastic.  But as much as Shaff wants everyone to drink from the hydrant - or tap, as it were - he does not support a bottled water ban.

“You're not going to make a big impact saying you can't ever by bottled water because there's going to be plenty of exceptions,” he admits. "We really just need to break people of that habit of convenience” of buying bottled water.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams was surprised when KATU News told him how much the city spends on bottled water: “$41,000 is not a lot in the scheme of things,” he said. “I'd certainly like to get it down as close to zero as possible.”

Although there's no local ban in the works, when the city looks to trim budgets soon it likely will look for more ways to go from bottled water to tap water whenever possible.

Notably, most cities that banned bottled water still allow workers to buy it for emergencies.
    
KATU News did try to talk to Multnomah County officials as well, but the county declined our request and sent a statement saying:
    
"While the amount we spend could be considered modest in relation to an annual budget of about $1.3 billion, any opportunity for savings is worth a closer look."