In 1997 our father Tony, who was called Czekaj, pronounce checkeye, a polish word for patience, borrowed money using his property as collateral to build the roadside spring.
It took about a year, after our water was tested and approved by the Ohio EPA in 1997, and in 1998 we got a bottle water license from the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
We operated as a bottle water facility for six years without any problems. All of our monthly bacteria tests and yearly ($1,000) contaminant test for over 200 contaminants passed for the six years we had a bottle water license.
During that time, Doc Stewart died and the person who replaced him decided, without credible explanation, that we were being transferred to the Ohio EPA as a public water system and were assured there would be no problem. Well although the Ohio EPA could not identify any problems with our water, it did not meet the requirements for a public water system since the bottle water requirements for treating water water are not acceptable for a public water system.
Instead we were directed to add chlorine and fluoride to our natural spring water since that was the what public water requirement which defeats the whole purpose of a roadside spring, especially one 1/2 mile up a gravel road.
This went on for four years, with trips to Columbus to meet with the Ohio EPA and the governor, with no resolution to our problem. Keep in mind that before we even started building our roadside spring, we started with the Ohio EPA in 1997 and they said they had no jurisdiction and directed us to the Agricultural Food Safety Division for a bottle water license.
Nonetheless, in January 2008, the Ohio EPA told us they had a solution and requested a meeting. So in February 2008 we had a final meeting with the Ohio EPA, The Ohio Agricultural Food Safety Division, the Ohio Health Department, and local Health department in Steubenville. Their solution? Close the spring. Our response? We told them we did not renew our annual operating operating license that cost $900 that was due in January which they were unaware of. They told us we couldn’t do that to which we politely told them we did not need a license to sell our spring water provided we let people know that roadside springs cannot be licensed as a pubic water system, which is what we have posted on our website. They went back to Columbus to contact the Ohio attorney general. They never told us what the Attorney General told them but they had us fill out some obscure Ohio EPA paperwork and we haven’t heard from them since.
Our father, Tony, had heard rumors from people in Columbus, and we always felt there were other reasons our bottle water license was discontinued since we never had any problems with our water during all of the testing and inspections, but we have no evidence to prove it. We followed the rules of the government agencies when we started and then they changed them after we built our roadside spring so we could no longer operate. Why would anyone do that? Would you trust anyone who did this to you?
So even though our roadside spring is not a public water system, rest assured it is, and always will be the “Water you can Trust”. That is our promise to you.