It was a rainy and chilly Sunday morning, but that didn’t stop Andrea Quagenti and her daughter from making the drive from Gloucester to Lynnfield for their twice monthly trip to Boston Clear Water Company.
“It’s the best water around,” she said, as she loaded up the back of her car with jugs of water from the natural spring, which she planned to use for drinking, making coffee, and even giving to her cat. She said her municipal water not only “smells like bleach,” but that she appreciates all the natural minerals that are present in Boston Clear’s water. She also says she can taste the difference, so much so that they’ve been customers for about eight years.
“We’ve traveled up and down the East Coast, and did RVing for a while,” she says. “We’ve been to other springs and this has been our favorite.”
So what inspires such devotion to this water?
According to Boston Clear Water Company administrator and ambassador Brian Russo, it’s as much about what’s in the water and as what’s not in it.
“Boston Clear, at its essence, is a naturally alkaline mineral spring,” he says.
Pocahontas Spring
The water is sourced from the Pocahontas Spring and has been flowing for centuries from deep within the earth. After first being used by native people and later by colonists, the spring had been in the same family since the 1600s, Russo says. But it wasn’t until 1901 that the spring’s owner, and later his son, began selling the water to the public. That family sold the Pocahontas Spring in 2014 to Boston Clear Water Company, owned by entrepreneur Anthony Gattineri.
With a pH of 7.7, Boston Clear’s spring water is naturally less acidic than regular tap water, which some people believe is beneficial to health, although more research is needed, according to sources like Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School.
In addition, Boston Clear’s spring water has a high mineral content, containing 22 mg/liter of calcium, 41 mg/liter of magnesium, 4.1 mg/liter of potassium, and 84 mg/liter of sodium, each of which has its own health benefits as well.
But beyond what’s in the water, Russo also touts what’s not in it. The company uses ultraviolet light, rather than chemicals like chlorine, to eliminate microorganisms, and the water is tested regularly according to regulations. In addition, the company says their water is “non-detect” for things like lead, mercury, and PFAS, which may be linked to adverse health effects and which are known as “forever chemicals” for the slow way they break down.
“It’s not about what we’re doing to the water,” Russo says. “It’s about letting the water be as it is, in its natural form.”
Award-Winning Taste
Folks also love Boston Clear’s spring water for its taste, which Quagenti describes as “super hydrating.” It’s even award winning, nabbing honors at the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting competition in West Virginia, the largest and longest-running water tasting event which includes entries from across the United States and the world. Boston Clear received second place in 2021 in the sparkling water category and fourth place in 2023.
Boston Clear Water Company’s filling station is self-service, open 24/7, and operates kind of like a vending machine, allowing customers to fill their own clean containers with water at a cost of $1.50 per gallon. After paying with cash or credit card, customers press a button to indicate the amount of water they want and water will dispense from a spigot.
“Because our water literally goes from the spring, through a pipe, to those water kiosks, we don’t have to treat our water in the same way that municipal suppliers do,” Russo says.
Just next to the filling station, customers will also see a pretty stone building which houses the springhead, where water from the spring upwells from the surface at a rate of more than 330 gallons per minute. According to Russo, most of that water runs back into the nearby protected wetlands.
Now, Boston Clear Water Company is continuing a centuries-old tradition as the spring’s latest steward. “It’s always been an integral part of the community and a place for people to come and get water,” Russo says. “That’s really the mission…to continue to serve future generations with this incredible water.”