Every year, industry and the private citizens release 18 billion pounds of new pollutants and chemicals into the atmosphere, soil, and surface and groundwater. Were you able to take in those mind-boggling statistics? I said 18 billion pounds of pollutants and chemicals. Many of these toxins poison our drinking water.

Both tap water and bottled water come from surface and groundwater sources. Surface sources include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells. We would never drink water from a lake or stream because we know it is very likely contaminated. Groundwater created from rain, snow, sleet, and hail soaks into the ground.

Many public water systems use under-ground aquifers as opposed to surface water, and so many people think their water is safe. An aquifer is a layer of water-bearing permeable rock, clay, gravel, sand, or silt. Pumped into wells from the aquifer, now the water is accessible for drinking or agricultural purposes. Spring runoff containing residue from pesticides, ferti-lizers, industrial chemical wastes, herbicides, and other contami-nants frequently makes its way into these aquifer reservoirs.