Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
They're becoming as common at the workplace as the coffee cup or the soda can - those plastic bottles of water.
And, if the National Resources Defense Council has its way, water bottlers will have to face more stringent regulations on their product. The NRDC alleges bottled water is no cleaner than tap water, and that one-third of the bottled water on the market contains bacteria and chemical compounds in excess of government and industry standards.
But according to some local water bottlers, the NRDC's call is nothing more than an effort to make it easier for municipal water utilities to compete with their bottling brethren.
"The NRDC is kind of like a watchdog group - and they're alarmists," said Gary Stockman, general manager of Teays Valley Drinking Water. "They're funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Water Works Association, the trade group of the tap water people."
Stockman said the NRDC has misstated the results of tests on bottled water to further its own purposes.
"The NRDC ran a test on 45,000 samples of bottled water and they only found two samples with levels of fluoride and HPC (a natural occurring bacteria) that were above the levels allowed by the government," he said. "And when they retested those two samples, they couldn't get a reading."
Stockman added he doesn't want to be critical of the municipal water systems and that nearly all have safe water supplies. At the same time, however, he points out that the bottled water industry already faces more stringent regulations than the municipal water utilities.
"I'm confident that Warsaw's water supply is perfectly safe and it won't hurt anyone to drink it," Stockman said. "But the Food and Drug Administration says that bottled water is the most highly regulated food product there is. No one has become ill - no one has died from drinking bottled water."
Additionally, Stockman said, Teays is a member of the International Bottled Water Association that requires Teays to adhere to stricter standards than those required by the FDA.
"We spend $3,200 a year in testing," he said.
Stockman points out the municipal water utility industry can't boast the same safety record or level of regulation.
"If the water companies have a problem, all they have to do is issue a 'boil water' order. In 1995, 100 people died in Milwaukee because their municipal water supply was contaminated with the crypto-sporidium bacteria because they didn't catch that they had a problem in time," he said. "I don't want to knock the municipal water companies, but we have a perfect safety record. They don't."
Not all area water bottlers oppose additional regulations, however. Don Clemens of Rabb Water Systems said his industry should be willing to accept any additional regulation because their product is consumed, where a vast majority of a municipal water utility's water is not.
"I'm for all the regulations the government deems necessary. I'm for doing what is right and the regulations make sure we do that," he said. "Ninety-nine point nine percent of a water utility's water goes down the drain and only .1 percent is consumed."
Additionally, the quality of the water in the home should be the responsibility of the individual homeowner, not the water utility, Clemens said.
Bill Wade, of Whispering Springs in Pierceton, said his company bottles natural spring water, so the issue of testing doesn't really apply to his product. He does, however, question the difference between bottled water and water from the tap.
Is it (bottled water) better than tap water? You're still taking tap water and processing it," Wade said. "Our water is natural spring water, so we minimize what we have to do to it. We're not processed water. We're a natural spring water."
Stockman agrees that Teays is processed water, but he said it's the finished product that is important, not the source of the initial water.
"The charge that we, 'take Warsaw's water and bottle it,' isn't true," Stockman said. "What you start with as a source has nothing to do with what you get as an end product.
"The process we use is the same process the Navy has used for years to provide water on board ship," he said.
Teays process involves pushing the water from United Water through a series of 15 filters to remove suspended particles and through a carbon filter to remove any odor. After the water is filtered, is is then distilled at 240 degrees Fahrenheit to remove any dissolved particles, Stockman said. The final process before it is bottled is to ozonate the water to kill bacteria.
Lester Melton, general manager of United Water in Warsaw, sees additional regulation on the bottled water industry as leveling the playing field between the two segments of the water industry.
"The standards are different. We are under the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, who enforce the Environmental Protection Agency's regulations," Melton said. "Basically, the proposed regulations would bring the bottled water industry on a par with us."
IDEM requires United Water to test daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly, Melton added.
The difference between tap water and bottled water is really a matter of taste, Stockman concluded. Not how the water tastes, but the taste of the consumer.
"Tap water is the Chevy and bottled water is the Cadillac," he said. "It's really up to what the individual wants."
