SPICEWOOD, TX — Musician Willie Nelson has a new business venture: He is a partner in Willie Nelson’s Water From Air, the Gulf Coast distributor of Wataire International atmospheric water generator units based here.
Nelson (shown here with one of the units), who cancelled his bottled spring water line because “he can’t stand the plastic bottles,” joined the distributorship after owning a Wataire unit and finding the technology “environmentally sound,” Ed Russell, Nelson’s business partner and longtime friend who founded the Gulf Coast distributorship about six months ago, told WaterTech Online™.
Russell said, “Willie’s just waiting to get all of our machines in place, and then he’s going to go full-blown with it. It should be pretty interesting.”
According to Russell, Nelson plans to partner with musician Merle Haggard to open a California-based Wataire distributorship. Russell then will be Wataire’s sole Gulf Coast distributor. Russell's brother, Frank Russell, a licensed professional land surveyor in Rochester, NY, and his wife are in negotiations regarding the possibility of starting up a Northeast region distributorship for Wataire.
According to Russell, Nelson’s interest in the Wataire units is because “he’s totally green.”
Russell said, “He [Nelson] just feels that the world needs a renewable source of drinking water, seeing how all of it’s disappearing or being contaminated.”
Nelson, who has made $5 million in improvements to a Carl’s Corner, TX-based truck stop he won in a poker game, is installing a commercial-sized atmospheric water generator unit and other cooler-sized units throughout the building, Russell said. The units will be featured during a grand opening celebration in July at the truck stop, Willie’s Place at Carl’s Corner.
The units generate water from the atmosphere, pulling moist air through a HEPA filter, and working much the same way a typical dehumidifying unit does, except that the newly generated water is pushed through a sediment filter, pre- and post-carbon filters, an ultrafine filter, and finally ultraviolet (UV) light before it is stored. Stored water is recirculated in the UV chamber to retain its potability, Russell said, noting the cooler-sized units retail for $1,499.
According to Russell, Nelson cancelled his bottled spring water line out of Arkansas because he can’t stand the plastic bottles. Russell said the bottler “won’t change the bottle and they’re overpriced.”
Wataire International has offices in Delta, British Columbia, and Woodland Hills, CA.
To access the Willie Nelson’s Water From Air Web site, click here.
To access the Wataire International Web site, click here.
For related information on this story, click here.
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