For decades, tourists have paid thousands of dollars for the chance to surf, snorkel and splash in the crystalline waters here. Now they're paying $5.50 a bottle to drink it.
In perhaps the most bizarre consequence of a failed municipal electricity experiment, a small Japanese company, the Koyo USA Corporation, has begun bottling desalinated water pumped from 2,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean and marketing it to Japanese consumers as the purest, most nutritious beverage on earth.
Those companies claim deeper seawater contains more nutrients and fewer pollutants than surface water. Kona's water, according to Koyo's chief operating officer, Kozo Kayama, is better because its source is deeper and older.
"The water you're drinking is older than Jesus," Mr. Kayama said of Koyo's Mahalo water.
