AWWA ACE54299

Recent changes in the drinking water market have resulted in a shift in public attitudes and interest in tap water alternatives such as bottled water and point-of-use/point-of-entry devices (POU/POEs). There has been a 13-fold increase in bottled water production in the past 25 years. One hundred and ten new bottled water companies emerged in 2000 alone, and nearly 2 millionPOU/POE devices are purchased annually in the U.S. and Canada. This dramatic growth in sales of tap water alternatives may have been unexpected to many in the drinking water industry, given that they are significantly more expensive and do not necessarily provide a purer product. Part of this change in drinking water preference has been motivated by media reportsand has resulted in utilities taking their own initiative to ascertain true public perceptions for themselves. Given this background, we view this project as a fact-finding study, aimed at separating fact (both public perception data and physical data as discovered through surveying) from utilities' and industry perception (as defined by manager interviews and a review of the current literature). This will allow us to draft concrete management guidelines designed to answer the interrelated questions of what options utilities should consider to address consumer concerns in the short-term and how these trends could affect their operation in the long-term. Includes 39 references, tables.