HARRISON — Summit Spring Water Co. will soon launch its “Raw Water,” bottled unfiltered spring water directly from its source, at the organic and natural food store Portland Whole Foods, President Bryan Pullen said Friday.

“The raw water will be exactly that, gravity fed into the bottle
moments after leaving the ground without any filtration, pumping,
treatment, etc. Nothing, nada, not so much as a paper towel,” he said.

Pullen said Summit Spring Water is one of a select few bottled waters to carry the state of Maine Premium Grade designation, meeting the very stringent quality and testing guidelines developed by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

DHHS Division of Water Quality Director Roger Crouse said his department has reviewed the so-called “raw water” and it meets all the requirements for bottled water distribution.

“We look at water quality. If they meet the water standards, they (bottlers) can treat or not treat their water,” he explained. “He chose not to treat. Most bottlers treat. They don’t have to.”

Bottlers such as Pullen must continue to test their water regularly and if at any time it’s found to have contaminant in it, Crouse said the company would be required to treat the water until it was clean.

“They will always have to test their water,” Crouse said. “So if they did have a bacteria hit, we would step in and mandate they put in a treatment.

The state’s Premium Grade designation is provided through the Department of Agriculture, said Hal Prince, director of the Division of Quality Assurance and
Regulations for the department’s food and rural
resources.

Currently, the Summit Spring water, which bubbles up through hundreds of feet of bedrock in an 80-year-old fieldstone spring house, is gravity fed to a nearby bottling facility on Summit Hill off Route 117 and sold as spring water, Pullen said. There is no pump, no bore drillings. The spring source is 750 feet above sea level.

Pullen said geologists believe the spring is a rare bedrock fracture in which 35 million gallons of water bubble out each year from as deep as 1,000 feet straight down. The recorded history of its use as a “healing tonic” and drinking water source traces the water back to the late 1700s.

Pullen said the water is nutrient rich, “living” spring water, with essential minerals and gravity fed straight into a clear glass one liter bottle. The glass bottle is placed immediately into a recycled-content brown paper bag lined with wax, to protect it from sunlight’s corruption and spoiling, further preserving the taste and clarity of the water inside.

Raw Water has no nutrition label, because the U.S government doesn’t require one for 100 percent spring water that is pure, natural, untouched and untreated, Pullen said.

“There is a growing worldwide group of people that are very concerned about chemicals in all products, as they should be,” Pullen said. “Autism, ADHS, diabetes, etc. are getting great scrutiny as to the cause. We are an increasingly unhealthy and heavier society even though we are exercising more. There are reasons for this,” he said.

Pullen said water from municipal sources are simply treated “to death.”

“Tap water is a perfect example of water that is treated till dead, in addition to the required chlorine residual to keep killing long after it leaves the municipal facility,” he said.

The company’s bottled spring water is minimally treated.

“Our small bottles receive sub-micron filtration and UV light exposure. Our three- and five-gallon bottles receive sub-micron filtration and ozonation,” Pullen said. Because of the complexity of the subject, Pullen said the Summit Spring Web page, www.summitspring.com, will have more information about what raw water is.

“The general public has become accustomed to thinking that water contains nothing. That is simply not true,” Pullen said. “For the state to allow us to do as we intend is a confirmation of not only an incredible source, but their confidence in the way we gather, protect and bottle our water. I have never seen it done by anyone else since I have been in this business.”

Pullen bought the Summit Spring gravity-fed plant and its 70 acres for about $1 million in 2004 and put another $2 million in improvements into it, including a stainless steel cover for the source. He bought the property from a neighbor who paid $17,000 for it in 1979 and sold bottled water to 68 customers from the back of her Subaru hatchback.

Summit Spring is the first and only bottle-water company allowed membership in the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Pullen said.

The raw water is expected to be marketed further as time and demand require. The company also plans to expand its business and employment opportunities if the demand for the water increases, Pullen said.