Water bottle refilling stations could become more common in Maryland under a bill passed Thursday by the state House of Delegates. Its supporters believe it will help crackdown on one of the biggest pieces of litter found in the state’s waterways — plastic water bottles.

HB841 passed the House on a 110-31 vote Thursday. One of its main sponsors, Baltimore County delegate Sheila Ruth, told the House Environment and Transportation Committee during a February 21 meeting that the measure is really about one thing. “The first step to reduce our dependence on single-use plastic (water bottles) is to have these water bottle refill stations everywhere,” Ruth said.

The measure would mandate a refill station in any new building construction that’s large enough to require a water fountain. Under the Maryland plumbing code, every business or education building needs at least one water fountain with two spouts if it has 100 occupants. The state of Illinois passed a similar law last year.

The belief according to Martha Ainsworth of the Sierra Club is that more refill stations will allow people the ability to use reusable bottles more easily — and that will trickle down to less plastic water bottles becoming litter. “Plastic water bottles are the third most frequently littered plastic in beach cleanups,” she told the House Environment and Transportation Committee. “And (plastic water bottles) are half the trash by volume in the trash tracks of the Anacostia River. So they are getting into our waterways.”

The measure also requires the State Department of the Environment to study how many water bottles state government and state institutions of higher education purchase in a year, and identify alternatives. The bill now heads to the Senate for its approval.