Why do some cities have drinking fountains that are always on?

Question

Cities like Portland, OR and many others have drinking fountains that are always on and running. Isn't this considered wasteful, why is it ok to do this on public drinking fountains while your supposed to conserve in your home. Is this water getting taken back to some kind of filtration system?

Answer 1

According to the city website, the drinking fountains in Portland run from 5 am to 10 pm daily (they have timers on them that turn them on and off). They're called "Benson Bubblers", and they're named after Simon Benson, who paid for them to be installed in the early 1900s. I don't know how much water they use, but the city says that they installed water flow restriction devices in 2005 that reduced the flow by 47%.

More information can be had here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Benso...

and here:

http://www.portlandonline.com/WATER/inde...

Answer 2

It's just plain wrong and wasteful.