Tapping a loyalty for L.A.’s own

AS the enviro-trend of embracing tap water takes hold across major cities in the U.S., the question for us is this: Would anyone consider it chic to drink L.A. water, even if it were filtered?

Local water can sometimes taste like a mouthful of nickels. In Carthay Circle, the water is cut with chlorine. In Santa Monica, some find it’s got a pungent, sour smell.

But as L.A. restaurant patrons scour menus for information about “food miles” -- or the distance ingredients travel to reach our plates -- some are doing the same with water, choosing filtered tap over the bottled stuff.

Diana Garelik, 38, who ordered tap with her dinner at Fins in Calabasas recently, is a typical tap water convert. “I don’t like that this nonbiodegradable stuff is piling up, doing lord-knows-what to this world,” she said.

The trend will not likely send the $11-billion bottled water industry down the drain. Less than 1% of the drinkable water used in Southern California is consumed, said Bob Muir, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California spokesman.

But that might change, as the MWD’s water treatment plants phase out chlorine filtration by 2011. Until then, restaurants are turning to fancy carafes and elaborate filters to appeal to the green diner -- without turning said diner green. It seems to be working.

Plus, Garelik added, “It’s stupid to pay money for water.”

-- Mayrav Saar