Rural Coastal Deep Ocean Mineral Water Production

The goal of this project is to develop a business to produce and sell Deep Ocean Water (DOW)as a nutraceutical beverage in one or more coastal Alaska communities.DOW is seawater atobtained ocean depths of 250-1500 meters.It has these characteristics: low temperature highpurity and high concentrations (relative to surface seawater and to most mineral waters) ofbeneficial mineral nutrients.This application submitted under Topic Area 8.6 Rural and Community Development addressesthe research priority of increasing opportunities for employment and income generation in ruralAlaskan coastal communities.The proposed project will also provide a base load to the electricutilities in those communities which can stabilize and reduce electricity costs for those ruralresidents.The problem is low employment and poor economic opportunity in rural coastal Alaskancommunities.There are very few jobs government support is extensive and electricity isexpensive.The opportunity is to develop a sustainable business which will serve the rapidlygrowing nutraceutical market provide year-round employment in rural Alaska and offer thepossibility of reducing retail electricity costs.