The Great Bottled Water Debate

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"Would you prefer plain, carbonated, boreholed, or natural spring, sir?"

By Scott Patterson

On November 13, 1995, the FDA, after much delay, published regulations that will allegedly clean up the bottled water indus try. A major aspect of the FDA regulations stems from a practice in which over 50 percent of the bottled water industry participate—-borehole drilling. Water obtained from a borehole does not naturally flow from a spring but rather, like well water, is forcefully sucked from the ground with hydraulic pumps.

The dilemma before the FDA in November of '95 was this: is it truthful to label water drilled from a borehole "natural spring water." The FDA decided that no substantial difference exists, and as long as the borehole water is identical to the water that flows from the spring, the "natural spring water" label may remain.

But is there really no difference between naturally flowing spring water and borehole water, or do those who actually market naturally emerging spring water wish to create a controversy when there essentially is none? Besides having a rather ominous name, is borehole water safe?

Many hydrogeologists believe that water pumped from aquifers near springs can change as a result of intense pressures the suction creates. Boreholes pump out hundreds of gallons per minute, creating a suction in the surrounding region which draws water from areas not associated with the spring. Contaminated ground water can then enter the borehole area, something that ostensibly could never happen in a natural spring.

SPRING WATER:
a flow of water rising or issuing naturally from the earth.
(Oxford English Dictionary)

"By definition the borehole will be shallow," said Dr. Susan N. Boutros, president of Environmental Associates, in a letter to the FDA in 1993. "Wells less than fifty feet in depth," she continues, "and [those] less than 200 feet from a surface water are considered at risk of surface contamination."

Bill Sharp, a professor of geology at Penn State, asserts: "You can create a situation where water from surrounding areas flows towards the borehole, especially in boreholes close to the surface, creating the possibility of higher contaminants." Contaminants such as cryptosparidium and giardia can enter the aquifer through surface water. There are no federal stipulations for the appropriate depth of a borehole.