War Waged Over Definition of ‘Spring Water’

Poland Spring rode the 1980s boom to become the nation’s third-largest bottled water producer after humble beginnings a century ago, when locals thought the elixir cured a variety of ills.

The company, nestled in the hills of southern Maine, built its reputation on a clear, pristine image of white-capped mountains and rushing spring water. Annual sales grew from $3 million in 1981 to $135 million last year.

Now, the company is fighting for its reputation in a dispute with Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin, who says the water isn’t really “spring water” at all and should be removed from store shelves.

“All I’ve asked them to do is remove one word from their label--’spring,’ ” Irvin said. “I’ve even suggested they find themselves a spring.”

But Poland Spring officials bristle at the notion that its water is anything but 100% pure spring water.

“We hate to be forthright, but we’re ticked off,” said Jane Lazgin, a spokeswoman for the Perrier Group in Greenwich, Conn., which owns Poland Spring and the nation’s two largest labels, Arrowhead and Great Bear.

As the battle looms in a Georgia courtroom, Congress and regulators in several states, including Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee, are taking a look at spring-water labels.

Spring water, the most expensive of the bottled waters, conjures an image of fresh, clean water bubbling from the Earth’s surface, but Irvin said Poland Spring’s water doesn’t meet the straight face test because it comes from bore holes, or wells.

The Georgia Legislature recently enacted a law that says “spring water” can be used in labeling only if the water coming from bore holes has the same chemical composition of the spring water bubbling from the earth.

“We put high stakes on truth in advertising and truth in labeling,” Irvin said.

The dispute comes as a surprise to European bottled water producers, who say using bore holes is the most efficient and sanitary means of extracting spring water.

“We don’t really understand why there is a controversy. Bore holes to extract spring water is a centuries-old process,” said Lisa Prats, vice president of the International Bottled Water Assn. in Alexandria, Va.

In Maine, the Poland Spring water sought by 19th-Century doctors in Boston, New York and Philadelphia is produced from rain, snow and ice that soaks into a wooded hillside, starting a natural filtration process that ends at a spring at the bottom, said Jack Robertson, a hydrologist from Hydrogeologic Inc. in Herndon, Va.

The trouble is that the spring is on the floor of a pond. Poland Spring’s solution was to drill wells to capture the “spring water” before it bubbles into the bottom of the pond.

Irvin said Poland Spring can’t prove that its water is any different from the water of Range Pond where the spring empties.

Consumers’ misperception about the source of spring water frustrates some smaller producers, who actually collect their water as it flows from natural springs.

In southwest Georgia, Garrett Malone and his family bought Nantze Spring 1 1/2 years ago and now bottle about 30,000 gallons a week--a fraction of Poland Spring’s daily production of approximately 100,000 gallons.

Malone, president of the company that owns the spring in Arlington, Ga., contends that Poland Spring is misrepresenting its product as real spring water.

“It’s basically mislabeling,” he said. “It’s confusing to the public. I think it’s tremendously wrong.”

But larger companies, such as the Atlanta-based Suntori Water Group, the nation’s fourth-largest bottled water producer, say the spring-water flap has been blown out of proportion.

“While we compete aggressively with the Perrier Group, this is one place where we agree,” said Glenn Wasser, vice president of marketing for Suntori.

Suntori, with $150 million in sales in 1991, markets the Crystal Springs, Polar, Kentwood and Belmont labels. The company has several free-flowing springs, but uses bore holes to extract the water in each case.

“Bore holes are the best and most sanitary way to extract spring water,” Wasser said. “There are just not that many places in the United State where free-flowing spring water can be collected.”

The controversy comes at a time when Suntori, Perrier and others are battling over a dried-up bottled water market.

Gone are the good days from 1977 to 1987 when the industry grew 500%. Now, the growth has leveled off as a large number of new entrants fight for a piece of the pie.

“Up until the recession, there was plenty of room for everyone,” said Lazgin, from Poland Spring. “Now, things are tighter.”

In a world of survival of the fittest, Lazgin said the Georgia flap has an uncanny resemblance to protectionism of Georgia’s 21 bottled water producers.

“This is Tommy Irvin and the agriculture department making a lot of noise down there. It smacks of special interests,” she said.

Irvin disagrees.

“That ain’t true,” he said. “That’s nothing but a smoke screen they’re trying to run up by trying to sell the consumer something he’s not getting.”