Area businessmen want to bring the taste of a local water source to Prince George shelves.
Soul D'Aqua Water Corporation flew over its most recent hurdle last week after the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George approved subdividing a remote 1.17-hectare parcel from a neighbouring Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure maintenance yard along Honeymoon Creek.
The site in question is looking to take advantage of Bergenstrom spring, a natural spring the company claims has some of the purest water, not only in Canada, but in the world.
Soul D'Aqua proponents Dean Cherkas and Mike Ivanof did not hear any questions or opposition to their plan to set up a bottling facility about 20 kilometres north of Mackenzie Junction during a public hearing at last week's regional district board of directors meeting.
Despite a concerted effort to move away from bottled water locally - CNC and UNBC have become bottled water-free campuses - Ivanof said there is still a market for what they're looking to sell.
"We're not trying to say this is the way to go. We're acutely aware of the challenges bottled water presents," he said. But the company plans to use fully recyclable bottles and the production is not expected to have negative environmental impacts. "We are certain it's a matter of convenience."
The business would employ about 25 people in the McLeod Lake area Ivanof said the stakeholders they've already met with are in support of the plan, such as the District of Mackenzie and MacLeod Lake Indian Band. "This is about economic diversification. This is about utilizing one of the most abundant natural resources in the province and capturing some economic benefit," he said.
If the rest of the approval process moves as smoothly as obtaining the land, Cherkas and Ivanof said they hope to be fully operational with bottles hitting local shelves by spring 2014.
According to Ivanof, the water license allows the company to bottle 20,000 gallons of the Bergenstrom spring per day and depending on the water flow, they may hope to expand their distribution throughout the rest of the province and potentially across Canada in the long term.
"Humanity can live without oil, but cannot live without water," Ivanof said. "We're blessed here in BC, especially in northern British Columbia, we're blessed with good drinking water."
