THE INCONSISTENT quality
of the Greater Vancouver
Regional District's water is
driving, more people to drink,
but not from the tap.

By Greg Felton

Contributing Writer

Bottled water has become the
hottest beverage craze to hit the
Lower Mainland since Starbucks
won over our coffee palates,

Don Wood vice-president of
sles and marketing of the Coastal
Mountain Water Company said
there has been “phenomenal
growth” in residential sales, espe-
‘cially on the North Shore.

“Bottled water is the fastest

> growing segment of the beverage
‘industry in North America, People
are looking for alternatives to cof-
fee and pop, (and) don’t want to
drink water that is chlorinated and

$6 7 don't like
drinking brown water,
or grey or whatever
color it happens
to be that day. 99

+ bottled water client
Patrick Holt

has sediment.”

Three-and-a-half years ago,
Wood and his partner Bill Eberly
started Coastal Mountain in the
belief that the North Shore was still
a largely untapped market.

“From a location standpoint it
has good access to downtown,
(and) North and West Vancouver,”
Wood said. “We thought we'd
develop ourselves as the North
Shore bottler,"

Wood said people are turning to
turning to ozonated bettled water
both for aesthetic and health rea-
sons, “Taste and smell is a big part
of it. People are more apt to drink
that water than water from the tap,
(because) it’s clear, it’s in the bot-
tle, (and) they can see it.”

As for health reasons, Eberly,
said GVRD water is especially
acidic and loaded with impurities:
“tmay be very pure up in the
reservoir then it goes through all
the various piping systems, (where
it can pick up) asbestos, cement,
and copper before it comes out of
your tap at home.” The chlorine in
our water then binds to these impu-
tities creating carcinogenic tri-
halomethanes (THMs), he said.

‘Wood credits Canadian Springs
for establishing the bottled water
delivery industry cight years ago
when it provided water delivery
services to businesses. “We felt that
it would work here because it
worked in all of the other major
cities in North America,” said
Canadian Springs president,
Cameron Falconer.

Now Wood said people can have
pure drinking water delivered to

water goo

their homes instead of lugging bot-
tles of spring and glacier water
from the grocery store. The current
residential matket for bottled water
is “the tip of the iceberg.”

Falconer said his business grew
100% per year for the first few
years hut now the rate is about
20%, Part of the reason is a more
competitive markets where ance
there was only one, there are now
more than 20 water delivery ser
vices in the Lowee Mainkind,

When Coastal began, residential
siles accounted for only 5% of the
tol; now it makes up 10%, and of
that number half of his clients pick
it up themselves to save the deliv-
ery charge.

Because some chents find dis-
tilled water too bland, Coastal will
add minute amounts of food grade
ivineral salts (15 parts per miltion)
to give the water a lightly mineral-
ized taste. “We're the only compa-
ny that sells mineralized drinking
water, That's what sets us apart.”

The bottled. water business owes
much of iis booming suc to the
state of the GVRB's drinking
water, According to a December
1993 memorandum: “The Greater
Vancouver Regional District is the
only major centre in Canada that
does not consistently meet the
Canadian guidelines for turbidity
(water cloudiness).

These guidelines for primary
disinfection are based on the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's
Surface Water Treatment Rule,
(SWTR), because neither Canada
nor B.C. has guidelines for evaluat-
ing filtered or unfiltered water.

In the most recent 49-month
monitoring period beginning in
December {989, samples from the
Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam
watersheds failed the short and
long-term standards of the SWTR.
The GVRD’s own 1990 Drinking
Water quality Improvement Plan
(DWQIP) identified turbidity as
one of four water quality concerns.

“T don't like drinking brown
water, or grey or whatever color it
happens to be that day,” said
Coastal client Patrick Holt, as he
came to pick up his water.

Wood simply doesn’t think the
municipal water supply can cope
with our burgeoning population and
low reservuir levels. The News
reported that an annual influx of
60,000 into the Lower Mainland,
antiquated water storage capacity
and low snowpacks are contributing
to a chronic water shortages, Heavy
rains on top of low levels contribute
to turbidity.

When

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Seymour watershed water is fil-
tered, sume amount of chlorine will
still be needed. While Wood said
his company is not compeling with
the GVRD, te daes admit dat the
quality of municipal water, and the
chlorine versus chloramine debate
havent exactly hurt business.

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At present, Coastal can purify
280 gallons per hour in a five-stage,
filtration, disinfection, and soften-
ing process. To meet increased

demand, Wood is adding a new
1.000 gallon per hour water purifi-
er, Canadian is also looking to
move toa larger facility.

d for business

Already, consumers are becom-
ing sophisticated water shoppers.
“People are out there cducating
themselves about the different
kinds of waters available. They
know what the difference is
between spring water, mineralized
water. (and) distilled water.”

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