New Owners Buy Lake Placid Water Company

One of these days, and it may come soon, there'll be a new choice available in bottled water: Fiji, Evian, Dasani and Kelley Springs.

And the last choice may be the best one, because it really is spring water, and it will be locally produced.

"We're hoping it will end up in the grocery stores," said Chris Rapp, the chief operating officer of Keystone Water Co. Keystone bought one of the two water producers southeast of Lake Placid, on S.R. 70 about 2.5 miles east of U.S. 27.

"We've got about 62 acres," Rapp said. And he's keeping all of it, to protect the spring from airborne and waterborne fertilizers and other environmental contaminants.

"There's a permanent spring at the top of the bridge, near Bear Hollow," said Rapp. And it's an artesian gift from the Earth. The water literally flows from Kelley Springs, about 60 feet below ground, into storage tanks or a 5,500-gallon tanker. The water is trucked about five miles up the road to the Keystone bottling plant, across U.S. 27 from Sweetbay.

There, it's filtered for impurities like sand and silt, and bottled in three and five-gallon containers, and a variety of personal-sized water bottles for golf courses, hotels, even municipalities.

"We protect it from impurities," said Rapp. "We have weekly tests and annual tests."

A 24-bottle case of half-liter, private-label bottles sells for about $7.

"The customer purchases the labels, ships them to our facility. We put them on," Rapp said.

Rapp and two of his friends bought the former Cascade Water facility in September. How did they find it? It's a long story, going back to their youth.

Rapp played Little League baseball with Darren Keller, the CEO of the new privately held company, and Ryan Hurlbut, the CFO. That was back in Indianapolis. They all went their separate ways in college. Keller remained in Indiana. Hurlbut is now in Manhattan. Rapp ended up in Naples. But the boys, now all in their mid-30s, remain friends.

And when the opportunity came to buy the Cascade plant, they took it together. Sort of. They've remained at their northern homes, while Rapp commutes from the Naples sales office to the Lake Placid bottling plant.

The next big move for the company is the new bottler, which is being installed. It will move five times as fast.

So, will Kelley Springs water from Lake Placid end up on supermarket shelves in California and Alaska? Probably not.

"We'll stay within the state of Florida," Rapp said. "Our big concern is that it affects the carbon footprint." It's just not profitable to ship water bottles outside a 350-mile diameter, so the north, south and western tips of Florida are as far as it will get.

But there is a possibility that Keystone, which currently employs 13 workers, will put on a second shift, Rapp said.