Nestle draws fire for plans to pump more water from North Florida springs

[Cindy]

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspi...icle51807.html

[Cindy]

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/k...tle-pollution/

Our water resources are being stressed in so many ways, we can either grow up and start caring or collect a little short term cash and be begging for clean water in our near future.

Bottled water is something we can all have an active roll in. We can't stop farmers, we need to eat. Most of us don't have the money or power to create laws or buy springs. We can buy a good water bottles and fill them out of our taps or wells. It's the lazy mans way of helping the environment. If we stop buying the bottled water the companies will quit sucking it out of our springs.

[jason]

I don't buy bottled water. Any American citizen has the ability to change an existing law or get a new one enacted - it just requires a little work to get it on the ballot. In California, a lot of folks want weed legalized and want to keep gay people from getting married. They put it on the ballot. In Alachua County, a lot of folks didn't like the noise from airboats at night, so they put a nighttime airboat ban on the ballot... And as for agriculture and eating - more than 20 percent of the nation's corn actually goes to ethanol production for fuel (a number that continues to rise). I fully agree that short-sighted development with an eye on short-term profits is a major cause of environmental problems - I'm merely suggesting that bottled water companies are really a small drop in the bucket when it comes to water withdraws in the Suwannee River Basin and that they provide some benefits.

[mccoy]

I watched something on the great lakes the other night and they are saying the samething is happening up there. These water companies are bottling the water and shipping it over seas.

[Cindy]

I don't buy bottled water. Any American citizen has the ability to change an existing law or get a new one enacted - it just requires a little work to get it on the ballot. In California, a lot of folks want weed legalized and want to keep gay people from getting married. They put it on the ballot. In Alachua County, a lot of folks didn't like the noise from airboats at night, so they put a nighttime airboat ban on the ballot... And as for agriculture and eating - more than 20 percent of the nation's corn actually goes to ethanol production for fuel (a number that continues to rise). I fully agree that short-sighted development with an eye on short-term profits is a major cause of environmental problems - I'm merely suggesting that bottled water companies are really a small drop in the bucket when it comes to water withdraws in the Suwannee River Basin and that they provide some benefits.

Jason, please don't take this personally. There are groups out there and I belong too, a couple that are working on sending in laws, stopping permits, many new laws have been sent and never went to a vote. (Don't get me started on that system, I know it too well) They are also working within the existing legal structure. There are 8 current permit applications for drilling on the SantaFe. They just prevented the one at Lilly Springs for now. It's not a "drop in the bucket" on the Santa Fe. If they pull enough water they not only affect our diving but change the ecosystems in the rivers (something that is already happening) they will start changing the ecosystems in the gulf. You simply can't have unregulated, unwatched and profit motivated industry to go about taking water out of the spring systems without having severe consequences. We know that from the history of our own country. Toxic waste dumps didn't get stopped by the industries that created them. This is one industry that every person/cave diver on this forum can affect. As consumers we drive this industry. So for no money out of pocket, no sitting through endless meetings the average cave diver can have an affect. Just stop buying bottled water! Vote!

[WEPIV]

Just stop buying bottled water! Vote!

I grew up in the Tampa Bay area and saw first hand what some of this (taking water out) did and believe me we don't want it to grow up here. Not to mention having to battle South Florida for "our" water as well.
Cindy has some good advice for us here...

Gene

[jason]

I'm not taking anything personally.... And I honestly appreciate how much you and others care for and work towards the betterment of the springs. As a hydrogeologist that has worked in the Suwannee River Basin for the last four years - I've just noticed that a lot of people that genuinely care about springs are directing energy towards areas that are not necessarily the primary problems. For instance - there is concern about water levels. Bottled water companies are an easy target. However, agricultural users make much larger withdraws that are also unregulated. A consumptive use tax for large-scale (or for profit) groundwater withdraws would cause bottling companies and agricultural users to think a little harder about how much water they withdraw and how they use it. Neither bottled water companies nor agricultural users want that tax to happen. There are several other environmental issues where time, effort and money is probably not being directed in the most productive areas - but I'm afraid we've probably already hijacked this thread enough as it is....

[Cindy]

I like Hijacking.

[Tegg]

One of the things that I have personally seen in the last few years of cavediving is that it is OBVIOUS that there is a strain on the fresh water supply in Florida. Water bottling is only one factor, but it is the "easiest" one to nip. Start where it is possible to start. Trying to fight "big farm" is going to be like fighting big tobacco. It can be done, but will take a long time and lots of money... on the other hand, water bottling is an easy industry to "knock out of the pot" compared to farming. It is not considered "needed", and a lot of people have already jumped on the "we don't need bottled water" bandwagon.

All I know is that the fresh water supply issue is the tidal wave that is forming underneath the covers. No one that has any "real say" seems to care or mind, and of course that bothers me and many others. I have this sad reality forming in my head that one day fresh water will cost more then gold per ounce. People keep saying "it'll never happen", but the more I look around, the more it seems to be going that direction...

[DA Aquamaster]

I watched something on the great lakes the other night and they are saying the samething is happening up there. These water companies are bottling the water and shipping it over seas.

I saw that as well, and no doubt freighters are leaving with bottled water in their holds. However it overlooks the far larger amount of equally fresh water needed to get the ship in and out of the great lakes through the locks and canals along the route and fails to even mention the infinitely greater amount of water used to support shipping and barge traffic in total, not only in the great lakes / St Lawrence but along the Missouri and lower Mississippi as well. I know the upper plains states have consistently endured very low watewr levels just to support a very small barge traffic industry with longer navigation seasons obtained at the expense of upstream water levels and fisheries.

Another often overlooked issue is the amount of water used in the entire start to finish chemicals to plastic bottle production process for the water bottle itself. It makes the water in the bottle look like a drop in the bucket.

In short, our whole water management policy is badly off track and we continue to manage water like it is a renewable resource, even as we continue to "mine" aqufiers that cannot recharge at nearly the same rate that they are being drained. In that regard, the problem in FL is minor compared to the center of the continent where there will be very little water once the major aqufers there are depleted. When that happens, pumping FL dry will be big business "justified" by critical water shortages elsewhere.