Sick Man Targets Water Firm Bottled Water Was Purchased From Newman Lake Company

A Coeur d’Alene man claims he became sick from drinking bottled water that he pays to have delivered to his home.

Tests run by the Idaho State Laboratory indicate there could be legal problems with water George Menkello purchased from Green Mountain Inc. of Newman Lake, Wash.

But only if that water came dribbling out of the tap and fell under the purview of the state and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Because it’s bottled water, regulated as a food product by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it’s possible that the same test results that would raise a red flag at EPA would pass muster with FDA.

In either case, FDA and the Washington Department of Agriculture are investigating Menkello’s complaint.

Green Mountain ran afoul of regulators in 1992, despite proclamations by company president Paul McLucas that he’s never had a problem.

The Washington Department of Agriculture “summarily suspended” Green Mountain’s food processor license for two weeks in 1992 because the water wasn’t “produced or bottled in a sanitary environment,” state records said.

It is the only operation in Washington to have its license suspended without an advance hearing since laws changed in the early 1990s, said Mike Donovan of the state Department of Agriculture.

Green Mountain, which distributes water in Washington, Idaho and Montana, apparently fixed those problems. It passed its most recent inspection, in May, with a good score.

Whatever the outcome of the current investigation, EPA officials say people place too much faith in bottled water.

Among other things, distributors like Green Mountain are responsible for delivering their own water samples to the lab. “It’s like the mouse watching the cheese,” one official said.

“I don’t think inspection is what people would like it to be,” added Larry Worley of the EPA’s Seattle regional office. With a serious analysis, people would find bottled water “is no better than what you got out of the tap.”

Questions also remain about whether Green Mountain’s “spring water” is mislabeled since it comes from a well, Donovan said.

Menkello, who says his illness sidelined him to the bathroom, is fuming.

“I wanted to keep my family healthy, so I bought spring water,” said the beefy ex-Marine master sergeant who moved to Idaho from the East Coast for the good life eight months ago. “I was in Vietnam three tours and I didn’t get (anything) like this.”

Doctors tell Menkello he has all of the symptoms of giardia, an intestinal parasite that causes severe diarrhea, he said. That diagnosis could not be confirmed.

Menkello is the only member of his family to get sick, although his wife and two children all drank from the same 5-gallon jug. That can be explained by the fact that he is more susceptible to intestinal problems because of a bout with colon cancer, he said.

Health officials differ on the likelihood of only Menkello becoming ill and on the likelihood he has giardiasis - sometimes called beaver fever. But they all agree there are confusing differences in the standards for bottled water and tap water.

The Idaho Division of Environmental Quality sampled a sealed jug of the water Menkello purchased. Lab tests turned up between one and two coliform bacteria per sample.

Normally that would put the water in violation of Idaho and federal drinking water standards and trigger more testing, said Ken Babin, of the Panhandle Health District.

But because Green Mountain is located in Washington, its water trade becomes a matter of interstate commerce and falls under FDA rules.

Coliform bacteria aren’t necessarily bad. They indicate the possibility of other contamination, such as animal feces or intestinal pathogens such as giardia. So a positive test, like the one on Menkello’s water, requires more analysis to determine if anything is wrong.

But the Environmental Protection Agency, which sets the standard for tap water, considers any coliform a red flag. “We say if you find them, it’s bad,” said the EPA’s Worley.

A positive test in a public water supply immediately requires four additional tests. If any coliform bacteria are found, health officials order people to boil the water before they drink it. Coliform rarely turns up in a well-run water system, Worley said.

FDA and Washington Department of Agriculture rules, however, say “the presence of coliform is allowable, to a degree,” explained Gena Reich of the Department of Agriculture.

The same one to two coliform bacteria that triggers additional testing and possible enforcement action by EPA can elicit nothing from FDA. It’s merely two different approaches to the same problem, Reich said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo