Paula White
Northern News Services

INUVIK (July 23/99) - Clear, refreshing, delicious -- you couldn't ask for much more than that in a product.

That's exactly what Paul Norris has in Arctic Mountain Pure, bottled water processed and marketed through the Northwest Water Co., a business Norris officially started in May.

"It's good stuff," he said. "The people that have tried it, I've got good feedback."

The water comes straight from Inuvik's own system. The difference, however, is that it is put through an extensive filtering system that results in Arctic Mountain Pure. The filtering process is known as reverse osmosis, which essentially removes all the "bad things in water," such as copper, lead and sodium, to name a few.

"It had to be government-tested before I could (sell) it. It has to meet federal...guidelines," Norris said. "It's been tested, too, by local public health for bacteria and it's come back negative."

The filtering system used by the Northwest Water Co. is state-of-the-art. Norris said the water first goes through a water-softening process before passing through a charcoal filter to remove chlorine. It then goes through a pre-filtering process to remove sand and sludge. This is followed by the reverse osmosis system, which removes lead and other metal solids. The water then flows into holding tanks where it is ozonated to remove bacteria and other micro-organisms.

From there, it passes through an ultraviolet light which further removes bacteria. Finally, it is put through another filter which removes any odour and is then bottled.

Norris said he has held taste tests, pitting his product against names such as Evian and Arctic Chiller (water that comes from Alberta) and said most people can't taste a difference.

"I guarantee its quality," he said.

There is some skepticism about the fact that much of the bottled water on the market today starts out as tap water and many of the products currently sold in Inuvik are no different. Norris said a product that comes from Whitehorse is a perfect example. Water is taken from a local supply, filtered, bottled and shipped. The difference is, Arctic Mountain Pure is Inuvik water, a truly local product, and, because of this, his prices reflect that.

"It's cheaper (than Whitehorse water)," he commented. "An 18.9-litre bottle is five bucks cheaper."

So far, business has been good and Norris said it is increasing all the time. Arctic Mountain Pure is distributed by Stanton's, the Northern Store and Arctic True Value.