Five years after the National Park Service found itself mired in corporate politics over a proposed ban on water sold in disposable bottles, free water dispensers are becoming more and more visible in the parks. At Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, the recent installation of six water-filling stations was driven by Vapur, Inc., a California-based company that sells flexible, refillable "Anti-Bottles."

The arrival of the dispensers, which will be celebrated Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the park, marks a sea-change in the Park Service's attitudes towards refillable water bottles. Back in 2010 Grand Canyon National Park officials were about to ban disposable water bottles when Park Service Director Jon Jarvis put a hold on the move, supposedly at the request of Coca-Cola (which sells Dasani bottled water). In the end the director reversed course, but not before requiring parks that wanted to ban disposable water bottles to conduct extensive impact studies.

Fast-forward to 2015, and not only are water-dispensing stations becoming more and more available in the National Park System, but the Park Service is working with refillable bottle companies to bring water to visitors.

While water always has been available in Bryce Canyon for visitors, the deal between Vapur, the National Park Service, the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association, and Elkay Manufacturing has seen a half-dozen filling stations made by Elkay installed in various locations within Bryce Canyon, and there's the prospect of more to come.

Currently, you can find them at the park's visitor center, at the General Store, the Sunrise Point parking area (in front of the High Plateaus Institute), Bryce Canyon Lodge, and at Sunset Point.

The Bryce Canyon Canyon Natural History Association, Bryce Canyon National Park, Vapur, Inc., and Elkay Manufacturing have collaborated to install water-dispensing stations throughout the national park/BCNHA

Vapur, whose made-in-America, BPA-free, flexible plastic water bottles have been sold in park visitor centers for the past few years, thought it only logical to work with Elkay and the Park Service to increase the number of water-dispensing stations, Brent Reinke, the company's co-founder, said during an interview Friday.

"When you have this initiative within the National Park System to at least, if not eventually eliminate, then at least minimize, the sale of single-use plastic water bottles, what a great fit. That's partly how the Vapur refill station program came together," said Mr. Reinke. 

Executing the plan took time, though. Under Director's Order 21, there are tight controls on how corporate programs in national parks can be executed. In Vapur's case, the company was prohibited from placing its logo on the filling stations, although its name does appear prominently on the dispensers. The Park Service also has final say on promotional materials Vapur and Elkay prepare for the program.

While there are a number of companies that make refillable water bottles, the filling stations at Bryce Canyon are not viewed as a concession that companies would be allowed to bid on, said Krista Muddle, the regional partnership coordinator in the Park Service's Intermountain Regional Office who helped negotiate the agreement.

That said, other companies could approach the Park Service about launching similar programs in other parks, she said.

"Nalgene could do a similar kind of program if they came to us," she said. "We would consider it exactly the same as we considered this partnership."

The two-year agreement calls for Bryce Canyon to pay for the installation of the filling stations. Vapur, meanwhile, will donate to the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association 2.5 percent of the "aggregate wholesale price" associated with the bottles the natural history association purchases from Vapur. Based on the association's 2013 purchase of Vapur bottles, that donation would have accrued to about $500, according to agreement.

Additionally, Elkay agreed to donate 25 percent of the purchase price of each refilling station to the association. Based on the initial sale of six stations, that donation would come to $2,500, the agreement noted.

"(Elkay dispsensers) are probably the best-known and most widely purchased refill stations in the country, and we've developed a great relationship with them," Mr. Reinke said. "We're now a distributor for Elkay with these branded Vapur refill stations. We combine that with the sale of our water bottles, and we basically package it as a program. If you buy both, as Bryce has done and a number of other parks are starting to do, we offer special pricing, both on the refill stations and on our water bottles, to kind of help promote people to take this on."

Vapur's refillable "Anti-Bottles", which bear this commemorative symbol, are being sold in the park by the Bryce Canyon Natural History Association for $11.99

While the Vapur founder declined to identify which other parks he was in talks with concerning this program, he did say some park concessionaires have indicated an interest in it, too.

"They're starting to contact us and install the refill stations because they have the same directive as the National Park Service. You have to show that you are doing things that ultimately are going to allow us to, if not completely minimize, actually eliminate the sale of single-use plastic water bottles in national parks," said Mr. Reinke.

Bryce Canyon became the starting point for Vapur's efforts because Mr. Reinke's family has owned property in southern Utah not far from the park for nearly four decades. Summer visits to the park were common.

While Vapur and Elkay collaborated with the Park Service to get the filling stations installed, Mr. Reinke acknowledges that they'll work with just about any refillable water bottle.

Thanks to an internal counter on the filling stations, park officials know that they've been used almost 200,000 times since installation got under way last summer.