Purity Test: How Crystal Geyser Failed Its Own Commitment

I have been writing about water, generally, and bottled water, specifically, for 15 years: issues of legislation, conservation, and more importantly the purity of the water we drink.

I used to buy Crystal Geyser. But I don’t anymore. Here’s why.

Before I jump into this, please know that I have contacted Crystal Geyser (parent company is CG Roxane, they are privately held) many times over the years, and again for this article, and they have never once responded to me, this in spite of my being the senior editor at a well-known website within the bottled water community, BottledWaterWeb.

Anyhow, Crystal Geyser’s own website touts their partnerships, their new recycling plan, their environmental commitments:

“Since CG Roxane’s involvement began, over 760,000 volunteers have removed close to 12 million pounds of trash from California’s beaches and waterways, protecting wildlife and water quality.”

That sounds good. Except for the words “protecting…water quality.”

CG Roxane gets their water by drawing groundwater from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This water contains naturally occurring arsenic. In my book Our World of Water: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of Earth’s Most CriticalResource, I discuss at length that most natural waters - those coming from a naturally occurring source like an aquifer, stream, etc. - contain a host of things harmful to humans: arsenic, uranium, polonium 210, etc. These trace amounts are found in water because they are part of a natural soil and rock degradation chain and are logically found in water and soil. There’s no real issue with that, as long at any bottler removes those elements down to what is required by federal law - 10 Parts Per Billion, or PPB. (There is a growing movement, which I support, to get the federal limit down to at least 3 PPB.)

When Crystal Geyser draws from their watershed they use sand filters to reduce the arsenic so their bottled water would meet that 10 PPB. To maintain their filters, they back-flush the filters with a sodium hydroxide solution, which removes the arsenic but also generates arsenic-contaminated wastewater. Often, lined ponds are built near a facility and through evaporation, the left over arsenic remains as a solid. There are also chemicals that can be added to this type of wastewater to mitigate the arsenic. Ponds must be lined to prevent the toxic wastewater from polluting everything nearby. (In Our World of Water I cover extensively the Hinkley, California situation where toxic water was put into un-lined ponds and created devastation.)

For at least 14 years, CG Roxane discharged the arsenic-contaminated wastewater into a manmade pond at its Olancha facility along Highway 395 in California. Then in 2013, the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, who oversees water in that part of California, took a sample from that pond and informed CG Roxane the sample had an arsenic concentration that was more than eight times the hazardous waste limit, creating a risk to the area’s groundwater and wildlife. Two other samples, one by CG Roxane itself, also showed the concentration was well beyond the federal limit.

CG Roxane was given a list of preliminary violations, and required to remove the pond. They hired two companies to remove the hazardous waste and transport it…somewhere. Keep in mind, CG Roxane knew this was toxic material. The arsenic-contaminated wastewater was transported to a Southern California facility that was not authorized to receive or treat hazardous waste. So what to do with the toxic sludge? Well, the companies - United Pumping Services, Inc., and United Storm Water, Inc., - dumped more than 23,000 gallons of arsenic-tainted water into a sewer without appropriate treatment. CG Roxane pleaded guilty to two felony offenses - illegally storing and transporting hazardous waste - before a United States District Judge and was fined $5 million.

It’s important to know that this did not impact their bottled water. However, as a water company, they knew exactly what they were doing and cannot claim ignorance. That they willingly mistreated the environment in Olancha where the pond was, and by allowing the waste to be dumped in a sewer shows a callous disregard for their “commitment to the environment,” and that’s why the words at the beginning of this article, “protecting water quality,” ring hollow. Their behavior is unacceptable and I have decided to boycott this company. The best way to voice your opinion about a company is to no longer buy their product. But CG Roxane is not alone. Many companies we all know, and perhaps buy their products, routinely skirt environmental laws, simply pay a fine, and keep operating. I intend to post additional articles about other companies that do this.

And lastly…in a June 2019 report, Consumer Reports Magazine identified 11 brands of bottled water out of more than 130 that had detectable amounts of arsenic. “Of those, six had levels of 3 PPB or higher. The brands are Starkey (owned by Whole Foods), Peñafiel (owned by Keurig Dr Pepper), Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water, Volvic (owned by Danone), Crystal Creamery, and EartH₂O.”

If you’re buying bottled water, you need to know what’s in it. Demand better. Demand transparency.