Zion National Park in Utah eliminated 60,000 plastic bottles in the first year of its bottled water ban. According to documents received by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), it appears that, perhaps without actually asking, Coca-Cola may have scuttled a similar ban that could have had even more of an impact in the Grand Canyon.

Apparently, barely two weeks before a ban on sales of bottled water within the Grand Canyon National Park was to take effect at the end of 2010, word came down from National Park Service headquarters that the ban was to be delayed, indefinitely. "Coca-Cola, which distributes water under the Dasani brand and has donated more than $13 million to the parks, had registered its concerns about the bottle ban through the foundation, and ... the project was being tabled," reports the New York Times

This was after the park service had spent $300,000 to install filling stations for reusable bottles along the parks trails and launched a public education campaign to encourage their use. Why? According to the National Park Service "litter associated with disposable plastic water bottles is on the rise along trails and walkways and is one of the biggest contributors to trash below the rim." Bottled water also uses much more fossil fuel energy and creates much more climate change pollution than refilling a reusable bottle and the park service has committed to saving energy and reducing its contribution to pollution.

"Why in the world would the Park Service Director swoop down at the last minute to veto a common-sense conservation measure that a park had spent significant taxpayer dollars to implement?" asked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch in a statement. “It would be outrageous if corporate contributions are influencing national park management decisions," continued Ruch whose concern is heightened by efforts within The Park Service to encourage even more funding for park programs from big corporations.

Both Jarvis and Coca Cola deny that the company asked Jarvis to step in a stop the bottle ban or that Coca Cola's funding for the National Parks Foundation, a non-governmental charity organization, was contingent on selling water in the parks.

However, Coca-Cola does not support bottled water bans: “Banning anything is never the right answer,” spokeswoman Susan Stribling told the Times, and she characterized the bottle ban as limiting personal choice. “You’re not allowing people to decide what they want to eat and drink and consume,” she said.

Interestingly there was no opposition to the ban from the vendor of bottled water in the canyon. Xanterra Parks & Resorts, an operator of lodgings, gift shops and general merchandise stores at the Grand Canyon and many of the national parks in the west actually campaigned for it. “We would like to see the ban of all petroleum-derived plastic water bottles in national parks,” Vice President for Environmental Affairs Chris Lane said told the New York Times.

Mr. Lane also told the Times that once the company accounted for a loss of $50,000 in bottled water sales and an increase in $25,000 in reusable bottle sales, they definitely lost money on the bottled water ban in Zion, but Lane is still a believer. “Revenue or no revenue, something’s got to be done about bottled water,” Mr. Lane said.