City of Canandaigua ponders bottling water

Posted at: 08/07/2012 6:46 AM | Updated at: 08/07/2012 7:27 PM
By: Ray Levato | WHEC.com

The beauty of Canandaigua Lake is well-known to Rochester residents. Many of them have boated on it, swam in it, even swallowed some of it while swimming. But would anyone buy Canandaigua Lake water if it were in a bottle?

David Whitcomb serves on the Canandaigua City Council, and he got the idea to bottle lake water while he himself was drinking bottled water. He thinks that Canandaigua has some of the cleanest and purest water in the Finger Lakes.

The city of Canandaigua uses the lake as its municipal water supply - and the city also sells that water to several surrounding towns. The water is filtered and treated at a plant on West Lake Road, and that filtered water is the water that would be bottled - not raw lake water. Selling bottled water would generate revenue for the city.

Whitcomb said, "Our mayor and the water shed council have done an excellent job of protecting the lake over the years. We consistently get high marks for our water quality. So it could be a natural draw. People are looking for the next great source of water, and I think we have a great source here."

Some Rochester residents have weighed in on the debate. Jim Carroll of Pittsford says that bottling locally would be a great source of revenue for Canandaigua. "Canandaigua Lake is noted for its cleanliness and I think people would buy it."

The Finger Lakes community has a great reputation as a vacation spot with pristine waters. Bill and Marlene Goodermote know something about good clean water; they're visiting from Clearwater, Florida. Marlene says of the Canandaigua water, "It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful."

Not everyone is excited about drinking Finger Lakes water. When asked if she would drink a bottle of water that said "Canandaigua", Shelbe Dancause replied with a definite,"I would not want to drink it. No, I don't think so, no."

The city of Canandaigua sells water to its residents for $3.07 for a thousand gallons. If you paid $1.39 in the store for a 16 oz. bottle, with the other $1.70 you could refill that bottle with the other 999 gallons.

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