Bottled water is draining Florida’s aquifer

A lot of people choose to drink filtered or bottled water to avoid the taste of the tap. James Adamski is a geology professor at Valencia College East in Orlando. He said the flavor, “all comes down to the chemistry of the water and the plumbing.” Though he said he understands people’s preference for bottled water, he also said pumping the water out of our natural springs and shipping it across the country is unsustainable, especially since we are already pulling so much water out of our aquifer for our daily use. “We are using it at a much, much, much, much, much, faster rate than nature can replenish it,” Adamski said. If we were keeping all the water for ourselves he felt things might be different. “If they were only bottling it for residents in Florida then maybe we wouldn’t see that much of a change,” Adamski said. If we keep pulling water from Florida’s aquifer at the rate that we are Adamski said we could end up with a bigger problem on our hands. “The springs, like Wekiwa Springs near my house, Blue Springs, Silver Springs, they all come from the same aquifer and if we use the water at a faster rate than it’s being replenished, then ultimately what we are seeing through our research is the spring discharge is declining at these springs.” He said over the last 20 years Wekiwa Springs has dropped below the preferred level 60 times and Rock Springs has fallen below that level 30% of the time. Adamski pointed out that a declining discharge could impact tourism as many people come to our state to enjoy our natural habitats. Over time he said it could also impact the quality of the water. “When you withdraw the fresh water from the aquifer, especially if you are more towards the coastal areas, and eastern Orange County, toward Tampa area, then the freshwater gets replaced by what we call saltwater intrusion, so overtime the aquifer gets saltier and saltier until it becomes unpotable.” Adamski did point out that bottled water makes up only a portion of the water pulled from Florida’s aquifer but said the combined withdrawals could leave a nasty mark on the aquifer which supplies about 90% of Florida’s drinking water. To learn more about Florida’s aquifer and how people are impacting our drinking water check out Talk to Tom. The podcast can be downloaded from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch anytime on News 6+.