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.

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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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