City of Phoenix to expand chilled water fountain program [Video]

PHOENIX (AZFamily)—This year, the city of Phoenix launched a pilot program to provide chilled drinking water to people in the downtown area.

City leaders say the program has been so successful that plans to add more fountains are underway in the coming months.

“People in our community asked for it. The community wanted chilled water in easy-to-access areas of the city,” said City of Phoenix Director of Innovation Michael Hammett.

At the beginning of 2024, the city installed two chilled water fountains, that also have bottle-filling stations, at Cesar Chavez Plaza and Marvin A. Andrews Plaza by City Hall.

“There’s chiller units on this as well as a purge system that purges the water at intervals to release it from the system in very small amounts and it prevents it from heating,” explained Hammett.

In the first six months, the two stations have dispensed over 1,100 gallons of water, which is …