As residents crack open their bottled water, the Town of Babylon is cracking down.

In the latest of a slew of green initiatives, the Town will no longer provide bottled water in vending machines in municipal buildings, as decided at a Town Board meeting on Sept. 10.

Citing the lack of recycled plastic bottles, the hope of conserving oil and gas expended in making and transporting the plastic containers and the high quality of Suffolk County water, the Town of Babylon will cease stocking bottled water at municipal buildings by the end of the month.

"We must do all that we can to protect the environment," said Town Supervisor Steve Bellone, explaining that he hopes people will use reusable containers filled with local tap water instead.

Town officials said that most plastic bottles — 75 to 80 percent — are not recycled. Last year Americans consumed 50 billion, single-use bottles of water. Of these plastic bottles, 85 percent went into the trash, and were not recycled, according to a recent report by the Suffolk County Water Authority. Not only do single-use bottles have a devastating impact on our environment in their manufacture and disposal, but also they impact consumers' wallets. For the $1.46 price of a single-use water bottle at a deli, you could drink a hefty 1,000 gallons of tap water said CEO Stephen Jones, of the authority.

Town facilities selling bottled water in public vending machines will no longer have them. These include the Babylon Town Hall, Town Hall Annex, the Parks and Recreation building, the Anthony Sanchez Memorial Park/Pool in West Babylon; Fabio Buttitta Memorial Pool in Deer Park, Geiger Memorial Park/Pool in Wyandanch, the North Lindenhurst Pool, the North Amityville Pool and the Phelps Lane Pool/Park in North Babylon.

This decision came a few hours after Suffolk County Water Authority challenged the notion that bottled water is somehow better than local water at a press conference at the Town of Babylon Recycling Center in West Babylon.

"As part of a comprehensive effort to dispel the myth that bottled water is in some way better than tap water, the SCWA is continuing a comprehensive plan to get the public to stop wasting money on bottled water," said Suffolk County Water Authority Chairman Michael LoGrande.

That day, the SCWA announced they would distribute reusable bottles as part of its campaign to "kick the bottled water habit."

"Suffolk County's water meets and exceeds federal and state water standards, and is tested far more often than bottled water …We test our water in excess of 200,000 times a year at our own nationally licensed testing lab in Hauppauge" said Chairman LoGrande.

In addition, tap water is cheaper. For the price of $1.46 per bottle at the store, residents could get 1,000 gallons of tap water, according to the Suffolk County Water Authority.

"The energy used every year in the U.S. to fill, transport, and cool bottled water and then dispose of the singleuse bottles is equivalent to almost 49 million barrels of oil a year," said Neal Lewis, executive director of the Neighborhood Network, a group of local environmental advocates. "That's like filling each bottle sold one-quarter of the way with oil and throwing it away."

Curtailing bottled water supplies at public buildings is the latest environmentally friendly effort in the Town of Babylon and one Town officials hope its residents will adopt. Earlier this year, the Town launched the Long Island Green Homes program, which helps homeowners affordably make their homes more energy efficient. Also, the Town of Babylon (and partners Wal-Mart and Breslin Reality) distributed 65,000 energy efficient compact florescent light bulbs to each home. Last year, the Town installed solar panels to the new Tanner Pavilion in Copiague. And in 2006, the Town of Babylon was part of an effort to build a "zero energy home" in Wyandanch.

"We have embraced green initiatives as part of our governing philosophy," said Town Supervisor Bellone. "We believe that communities who embrace green issues and sustainability will be more dynamic, creative and successful communities, well into the future."

In other Town business, the board:

•changed the name of the Office of the Town Historian to the office of Historic Services to better reflect its function;

•authorized the formation of a Special Emergency Response Team.

The next regular Town Board meeting will be Tues., Oct. 7, 3:30 p.m.