Testing the Waters

By THOMAS McCARROLL

The label on Crystal Geyser natural Alpine spring water boasts that it is nothing less than "nature's perfect beverage." The drink, reads the label, "begins as the pure snow and rain that falls on 12,000-ft. Olancha peak in the towering Sierra. This pristine water is naturally filtered through the mountain's bedrock."

The language is evocative and the imagery idyllic, but unfortunately Crystal Geyser's claims are something of an exaggeration. Or so says the North Carolina agriculture department, which recently ordered Crystal Geyser and seven other bottled waters, including the popular Naya and Poland Spring brands, removed from store shelves in that state because of "false and deceptive labeling." Instead of tapping a free-flowing spring, said the department, the bottlers drilled holes into underground wells and mechanically pumped out water. Says the department's legal-affairs director, David McLeod: "You can't sell well water as spring water in this state."

That is bad news for producers of the nation's 700 brands of bottled water, many of which convey the impression in their advertising that they have tapped an unspoiled river running through the Garden of Eden. Regulators and consumer groups are starting to question whether bottled waters are worth the $2.7 billion a year that customers spend on them. While no other officials have gone as far as North Carolina's, 23 states have passed laws regulating the industry's water-quality and -labeling standards. Several, like Georgia, require companies to provide documented proof of their sources for water. Vermont requires bottlers to disclose any amounts of lead, arsenic and nitrate in their beverages. Spurred by criticism that its enforcement has been lax, the Food and Drug Administration this month began drafting tough new rules for the industry.

Such public scrutiny follows a flood of mishaps and miscues that have seriously hurt the industry's back-to-nature image. The first blow came in 1990, when Source Perrier recalled 160 million bottles of its mineral water worldwide after traces of benzene were found in some samples. Although the drink is back in stores, Perrier has still not fully recovered from the disaster. The brand's market share -- 2% of all bottled-water sales -- is half what it was before the benzene scare. Bottlers suffered another jolt in 1991, when the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee conducted an extensive investigation of the industry. Among the committee's findings: 25% of pricey bottled waters, including such brands as Great Bear and Glacier Springs, come from the same sources as ordinary tap water; another 25% could not document the source of water at all; and 31% exceeded the allowable levels of microbiological contamination. The main problem, concluded the committee, was "inexcusably negligent" regulatory oversight by the FDA.

In an effort to clean up the industry, the FDA is proposing the most sweeping new regulations in two decades. The most controversial would set uniform definitions for types of bottled waters, such as "artesian," "mineral," "distilled" and "natural spring." These terms are now generally ill defined. Some names, such as Grayson's "mountain water" and Music's "glacier water," defy definition since no such categories exist.

The hottest dispute is over "spring water," the most popular type on the market. Many hydrologists, state regulators and small bottlers favor the traditional geological definition, which has been adopted by North Carolina and several other states: water that flows naturally to the earth's surface and is drawn off there. Water sucked up through layers of earth via boreholes, they contend, may be of poorer quality because it can contain impurities.

Big bottlers, however, led by the International Bottled Water Association, are lobbying for a more liberal interpretation, which would include water collected from underground springs using drilled holes. Such companies as McKesson (producer of the Sparkletts, Alhambra and Crystal labels) and Evian argue that boreholes are just another way of extracting water of the same quality. With boreholes, water can be pumped out in much higher volume and at lower cost. Says Kim Jeffery, president of Perrier Group of America (Poland Spring, Calistoga, Arrowhead, Great Bear, Volvic): "Whether you deliver it by C-section or natural childbirth, it's still a baby."

If the FDA adopts the geological definition, half of all so-called natural spring waters would have to change their labels. No bottler, though, wants to give up the highly coveted "spring" label, since it commands premium prices over other waters. If the FDA stops short of the strict standard, contends James Heaton III, president of the National Spring Water Association in Banner Elk, North Carolina, "the government will be handing the big boys a license to lie to the public." Meantime, the industry's lobbying effort, warns Heaton, could backfire. Consumers, he says, could lose even more confidence in bottled waters. With bottlers already struggling to stay afloat -- annual growth has slowed to 3%, in contrast to 500% in the 1980s -- that's the last thing the companies need.