# Appreciating the SFO Watering Hole

Last week, after dutifully opting out of the TSA’s facial recognition and making it through all the scanners, I reached the only line in any airport that brings me joy: the SFO watering hole (as I now call it since it reminds me of animals gathering around a small pond to drink). It's the first thing you see beyond security in the international terminal: two beautiful and simple water bottle filling areas each in the shape of a three-pointed star.

Forget clanking your bottle against a water fountain next to the bathroom entrance hoping for a half-full bottle. Instead, the three-sided structures encourage accidental eye contact and a small chat with the people across from you. Before a single word comes out you already learn about your fellow hydrators. They prefer their water at a different temperature than you do, as each of the three spots has a different temperature: hot, ambient, and chilled. If that’s not enough to get you talking, don’t worry, the contactless sensor on the side of the station is just unconventional enough to confuse about one in three people. If you’re not getting help from someone then you’re probably helping out one of the friendly faces across the way.

Sure enough, last night as I replenished my bottle a little old lady was there struggling with hers, which couldn't have held much more water than a tube of M&M's. After we got her sorted, she asked, in broken English, why she was sent to the TSA to get water. That's a fair question since usually the TSA is taking your water.

You know what else is counterintuitive: that this airport in the most capitalist, venture-backed city in the world has such a wonderful public amenity. Who moved heaven and earth to get this here instead of hawking $10 water bottles? These days they'd be $25 waters personalized by AI based on your DNA to improve your longevity.

The simple answer seems to be the SF Public Utilities Commission. In 2011, when the first stations were installed the SFPUC was leading a citywide effort to promote San Francisco’s tap water over bottled water. They're credited with pushing for the first stations, and eventually the nicer ones we have today.

That same year, SFPUC spokesperson Tyrone Jue said: "*Bottled water is perhaps one of the greatest public cons of the 20th Century.*" Fifteen years later, Tyrone Jue is director of SF’s Environmental Department, and he's posting about the launch of the [city’s first reusable cup program](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tyronejue_reuse-zerowaste-ugcPost-7459655263772459009-AEyl/) for Downtown First Thursdays.

A CBS article [claims](https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sfo-unveils-water-filling-stations-beyond-security-checkpoints/) SFO's water bottle stations were the first post-security water bottle filling stations in a US airport. I'm not so sure; it seems like Chicago [may have beaten them](https://leeduser.buildinggreen.com/blog/bottle-filling-water-cooler-elkay) to the punch, getting some installed in 2010, just four years after the TSA banned liquids over 100ml. Chicago being a bit ahead tracks since [Elkay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elkay_Manufacturing), the company that developed the refilling stations, is based in Chicago.

That being said, can we take a minute to appreciate that water bottle filling stations were invented only about 15 years ago and now they're basically ubiquitous in US airports? What a rapid and beautiful proliferation of technology and change in behavior. It has been so successful that SFO [banned single-use plastic water bottle](https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/02/business/plastic-water-bottle-ban-sfo-trnd/) sales in 2019, the same time they build the beautiful stations we have today. Learning all this, I have an even greater appreciation for SFO.

I hope the next time you visit the SFO Watering Hole it brings you a little extra joy too!

Timeline:

*   2006: TSA Banned liquids over 100ml
    
*   2009: [Elkay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elkay_Manufacturing) launched the water bottle filling station
    
*   2010: Chicago Airport set up the [first](https://leeduser.buildinggreen.com/blog/bottle-filling-water-cooler-elkay) water bottle filling station post-security
    
*   2011: SFO adds their [water bottle filling station](https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sfo-unveils-water-filling-stations-beyond-security-checkpoints/)
    
*   2019: SFO [bans disposable plastic water bottles](https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/02/business/plastic-water-bottle-ban-sfo-trnd/) and adds the [nice stations](http://www.billingsjackson.com/projects/sfo-water-filling-station).
    
*   2026: SF DTFT has the city's [first reusable cup program](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tyronejue_reuse-zerowaste-ugcPost-7459655263772459009-AEyl/)!