Christian Bates

Have you noticed the attention to detail in raw food, superfood, and drinking water lately? We are in a health journey now where we are putting together the more refined pieces of our nutritional protocol and in the way we live with the Earth. It is no longer about “I eat healthy,” “I workout on the weekends,” “I recycle,” or “I donate to charities” anymore. There is a much deeper call now, one that demands a paradise level of health, and a Utopian connection with what each of our personal missions and visions for ourselves and the world are.

I have noticed that my attention to detail in quality about the raw foods, superfoods, and water that I drink has each year become more refined, so much so that I wonder how I ever managed before, given what I now understand about both the amazing (and fun!) aspects in food and water quality and about the hidden abominations in quality of the food, water and environment we eat, drink and live in.

When I first became extremely interested in truly healthy food (and “went raw”) years ago, I had my fair share of rancid walnuts in the bulk section of natural food stores, superfoods that had fillers in them, and I drank tap water. I thought I was so pure, but I was falling for many of the booby traps. One of the most important evolutions I had was that I soon updated to poorly filtered tap water. I thought I was on the cutting edge by doing that. Then, with some updated knowledge, I upgraded to aquifer water and spring water bottled in plastic which was definitely a step up. And now finally I only drink fresh spring water bottled in glass.

I have since even more recently discovered that many springs out there are actually holes dug into the Earth next to naturally occurring springs, and thus they are an aquifer water, which is like a cross between a natural spring and a human-made well. Compared to a wildly-flowing spring, aquifer water seems to lack a certain amount of magic and can sometimes contain bad calcium (lime). Most bottled spring water is actually bottled aquifer water. They might taste good to your average consumer, but if you have stumbled onto my blog you might have questioned the actual healthfulness of shelf-sitting, light-and-heat-exposed bottled spring water. (Just so you know, there is a unique brand of true unprocessed spring water that still has magic in it: RawLivingWater.com)

Can I find natural, cold drinking springs near my home?

There are many naturally occuring springs where I live, on Mt. Tamalpais. A few gush right out of rock – perfect for filling up a glass jug – and many trickle out of dirt and are not potable. Most of the springs are a brief hike away. The most important water sources for us at this time are the ones alongside a road near one’s home (or for the few: the one’s on your or someone’s property, feeding into the house). This way you can fill 20-40 gallons or more at once into your car, so as to only have to fill up a couple times per month, and of course to have the leverage of your vehicle.

There are three springs on the road that I am aware of in my county, Marin, which is just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge. I enjoy filling up from just one of these springs every week: Red Rock Beach spring. It is not a true ancient spring as it is actually a horizontal hole drilled into the cliff side to relieve erosion pressure on the cliff next to the one flowing natural spring beside it. The “spring” is therefore almost an aquifer water, but, fortunately, there are many naturally occurring trickle springs right next to it, so in this unique case the water is actually excellent, and low tds (no “minerally” hardness like that of your average water well.) The issue with this spring is that, in a Utopian society, we would have “boxed” this spring a long time ago. The water gushes at a few gallons per minute out of clean rock, so it does not have to be boxed, but it would be so much nicer, as I would no longer need to bring my own copper pipe to channel water from the fissure, or “eye” of the spring, to my jugs.

What is boxing a spring anyways?

Boxing a spring implies correctly placing a stone wall in front of or just downhill from the spring, sanitarily trapping all the water behind the wall so that it all flows out one pipe cemented through the wall. Correctly done, it directs the water right into a fill up zone (a water fountain) thus increasing the flow rate into your bottle (so that you don’t have to spend all day at the spring – not that there is anything wrong with that), keeps away erosion, helps keep away rodents from contaminating the water, and – my favorite – if the box is made with some nice craftmanship, it looks like and becomes a beautiful fountain, the perfect centerpiece for any town or park.

There is a second spring in our county – one on the road – that was extremely popular prior to the 1980s when at some point it was privately closed down. All over the world, springs that become popular get shut down, just as in this example: Longislandpress.com/2010/06/17/residents-fight-to-keep-spring-in-cold-spring-harbor.

The third spring-on-the-road that I am most interested in, has been abandoned. This spring was boxed but has been purposely neglected until moss covers the fountain; the box trap has eroded and filled with sediment, letting bugs and slugs contaminate the trapped still-flowing-after-thousands-of-years water. The actual spring water is still perfect, but impossible to drink from sanitarily do to the erosion, partially caused by the road.

I am currently searching for all the historic knowledge on this drinking spring, so that I can find the logistics for restoring it. As you can see from the pictures, this spring has two parts: the fountain and the box. The fountain is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship now covered in moss. You can see that beside the main fountain pipe are two concrete turtles who have small copper pipes coming out of their mouths. If this fountain were successfully connected back to the box, the fountain would have 3 spouts of water coming out all at the convenience of a large car pullout, under the canopy of redwood trees. What a vision! How good it will feel when we restore this spring. And, to restore other abandoned springs just like it all around the world!

This spring’s box is uphill from the once-piped-to fountain, as the perfect place for the box (needs to be near the eye of the spring) is different from the perfect place for the fountain (situated closer to the car pullout). The box is eroded, full of sediment and dead slugs. It needs to be completely redone. It is flowing though about two gallons a minute. If officially approved and contracted, this spring could be restored very quickly by specialists.

With the exception of FindASpring.com, your local spring information is often NOT a Google search away. We get to ask the locals instead, people who have been around for a while, especially the local 50 years of age or elder folks, will be key in giving you clues so that you can be the mystery unveiler on the past and present of springs in your neighborhood. Start asking. Chances are you will find that your neighborhood has lots of micro climates, landscapes, hills, mountains, forests, summits and valleys where springs dwell. Most creeks have a spring head that fuel them where water comes from out of the Earth pristine, not just from topical rainfall. Take an off-trail hike up a creek and see what’s up there. Just note that if you find a spring that is a trickle spring coming out of mud, I don’t recommend drinking from it as it may contain rodent fecal matter that has water born disease. But if you find a spring coming right out of rock, and the spring has no development above it, then its a good chance the water is perfect right out of the ground. Visit the videos on FindASpring.com on ways to test spring water for its drinking quality.

You may find springs that were once boxed but have been abandoned. The non-profit nature of springs combined with municipal profit, control, and secondarily, “liability issues” makes it so that springs get legally halted so that the local people are forced to drink for-profit toxic, denatured municipal tap water. As well, you may find wild springs that are just asking to be boxed into an awesome fountain, but the powers that be combined with the local population’s lack of awareness about the cruciality of spring water halts such a vision!

Here is why this is a public service announcement: I am asking you to spread the word on how to take back our birthright of having gushing, convenient and pristine springs always nearby.

There are three public health hazards:

1. Tap water is just about always contaminated with chlorine, fluoride, heavy metals and anti-metallic substances, lime and nano-bacteria. Even when filtered, the water isn’t living, and thus a filtered water drinker is filtering 70% of their bodily consciousness, if you know what I mean. Start where you are at, and step by step make audacious changes for the better.

2. Whenever I am filling up at my spring and someone comes by to ask what I am doing, I always say excitedly that I am drinking the best water ever! They then proceed to fill their small bottle just downhill from the spring where the water might be contaminated with sediment or parasites. I quickly tell them to go to the spring’s fissure. We must spread the word and educate people on the value of drinking water that is always bottled inches from the spring head.

3. We get to gather together and influence the people and the officials to approve, or better yet get them to fund, the boxing and restoring of every public area’s viable springs. Certain laws or watershed profit and control obligations must be changed by popular demand and Utopian logic so that all springs will be optimized.

These are the first three steps. Step four is to box springs with water enhancing technologies. One way to both eliminate sediment from getting into the spring water fountain pipe or fissure, as well as to concentrate the healthful monoatomic minerals in spring water, is to create a vortexing unit within the spring box and the water outlet. This technology can be reviewed on www.subtleenergies.com. This is a tall order for now and can be done in the near future after we just get the basic spring boxes and fountains installed everywhere.

I know I create the changes I want to see for myself and the for the world around me with what I do as a habit. A habit is what counts. So please, go out and spread the word on the real clean water issue. As more people respect, appreciate, hold sacred and demand the best springs ever, spring restorations will come of it. May this message have served you and given what you needed to know to take the next step to better and better uncompromised health!

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