ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090053
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MILESBURG, PA.
SOURCE: Associated Press
THERE IS MIXED REACTION to new standards that require companies to reveal their water sources.
Crack open a jug of bottled water and you may think that pure and natural drink comes from a bubbling spring, melting glacier or flowing stream.
But starting next week, new federal labeling standards will go into effect, telling consumers whether the water they're drinking comes straight from nature or is processed.
Companies will have to reveal their source of water and will be prohibited from using certain descriptive words - such as mountain, mineral and purified - unless their products meet certain standards.
No one at Roanoke-based Quibell Corp. was available to comment on the regulations Wednesday. The beverage company's local plant is temporarily shut because of a legal dispute with its bottle supplier.
``I think the new regulations are a good step in the right direction,'' said Ed Lauth, president of AquaPenn, a bottled-water company based in central Pennsylvania. ``The new labels will open the eyes of the buyers who put bottles on the shelves of grocery stores and convenience stores.''
Under the old rules, inexpensive bottled water found its way onto many store shelves without consumers realizing where it came from. But under regulations passed by the Food and Drug Administration last year, bottlers will now have to list the source of the water.
``A store will be reluctant to put a product on the shelves with a label that says `municipal source,''' Lauth said.
The International Bottled Water Association, along with a number of corporations, drew up the new regulations to bring some conformity to the industry and stop companies from deceiving consumers.
In 1995, bottled-water sales reached $3.38 billion, up 8 percent from the previous year.
``When a company uses a word like glacier in its label, it might be somewhat misleading,'' said Kim Jeffery, president of the Perrier Group of America, the largest U.S. seller of bottled waters. ``The new regulations really ensure uniformity in labeling, so the consumer knows exactly what is in the bottle.''
While many support the regulations, which go into effect Monday, there has been a mixed reaction within the bottled-water industry.
The National Spring Water Association thinks the regulations don't go far enough because companies will still be able to call their product spring water if they drill a borehole near a natural spring and bottle the water.
``Spring water comes to the surface of the earth naturally without mechanical means,'' said Bill Lizzio, president of the association. ``Water that is extracted through a borehole should not be called spring water. We felt that was misleading the consumers.''
Others think that more-stringent policies should be implemented to establish some quality standards.
``The real danger is from bottled water that has bacteria in it or has dust and cardboard fibers,'' Lauth said. ``When people buy bottled water that is not up to quality standards, it hurts the trust of the rest of the industry.''
But there are also those within the industry who say the government is interfering too much and overstepping its boundaries.
Alaska Premium Beverage and Bottling Inc. of Kent, Wash., had been selling what the company called Alaska glacier water. Actually, the company's source was tap water from Sitka, Alaska.
Because of the new regulations, the company has dropped ``glacier'' from the label and changed it to a natural source in Alaska.
``In our case, we're selling the image of Alaska,'' spokesman Mike Shelton said. ``We're changing our source, but it isn't any better water. We didn't want to say `municipal source' on our label.''
AP-DS-05-07-96 2340E l
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Ed Lauth, president of AquaPenn in Milesburg, Pa.,by CNBloads a labeling machine. Federal standards regulating bottled-water
labels go into effect Monday. color.