Mission
Mission Statement
To protect natural springs and make clean drinking water accessible to all
Contact
Saveaspring@gmail.com
What is a Spring?
According to the USGS, "A spring is a water resource formed when the side of a hill, a valley bottom or other excavation intersects a flowing body of groundwater at or below the local water table, below which the subsurface material is saturated with water.
A spring is the result of an aquifer being filled to the point that the water overflows onto the land surface. They range in size from intermittent seeps, which flow only after much rain, to huge pools flowing hundreds of millions of gallons daily." The diagram on the right features a spring drawing from its aquifer below.
Challenges to Protecting Natural Springs
Human activities have led to the widespread destruction and exploitation of natural springs.
From Arizona to Texas and Florida to California, America's once might natural springs are drying up at an alarming rate. According to Cameron Barrow, a research ecologist at the UC Riverside Center for Conservation Biology, "climate change is likely playing a role. As average temperatures have been climbing, there has been less snowpack in the mountains ... and that has meant less water seeping into the ground to recharge the aquifers and the springs." Given this predicament, we must consider the human contribution to climate change to preserve natural springs. Yet as Professor Friederike Otto says, "It's important to highlight that every extreme weather event has multiple causes. So the question of the role of climate change will never be a yes or no question. It will always be, did climate change make it more likely or less likely, or did climate change not play a role?" So, while many questions remain about the particular effects of climate change, it should not prevent us from taking sensible actions to protect Earth's climate and environment.
Solving the climate crisis does not have to be politically divisive, but it does require every person, government and corporation to play their part in mitigating the crisis if we want our civilization to continue.
When looking toward the solution for saving natural springs, it is easy to identify some of the most egregious offenders against them that must be stopped.
The Nestlé Corporation and its former long-time chairman and CEO, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, represent a quintessential example of the kind of worldview that we are up against. At a conference, Brabeck-Letmathe once stated, "Water is, of course, the most important raw material we have today in the world. It’s a question of whether we should privatize the normal water supply for the population. And there are two different opinions on the matter. The one opinion, which I think is extreme, is represented by the NGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public right. That means that as a human being you should have a right to water. That’s an extreme solution. The other view says that water is a foodstuff like any other, and like any other foodstuff it should have a market value."
Brabeck-Letmathe view demonstrates Nestlé's belief in profit over people. The company has tried to walk back these comments of course, but its actions speak so much louder than its words. As recently as the spring of 2021, the State of California has ordered Nestlé to stop siphoning millions of gallons of water out of California’s San Bernardino forest.
However, it seems Nestlé's effort to drain every last drop of water from the forest goes on unabated. Greater public outcry against Nestlé's activities and boycotting its Arrowhead spring water brand are crucial steps to stopping Nestlé. Perhaps they will pay more attention to their destruction of springs when it is no longer profitable to do so!
Solutions for Preserving Natural Springs
Saving springs first requires establishing your view on why they should be preserved. Sustaining our environment, ensuring safe drinking water and promoting public health are all great reasons why springs should be saved. People first need to understand the why before moving on to the how. As far as how springs can be saved, political, legal, educational and environmental actions are requires to ensure long-term preservation.
The graphic below depicts some of the main solutions for preserving and protecting natural springs around the world:
