Our bodies are 70% water.
Think about that—almost three quarters of your body is water.
Shouldn't that water be as pure as possible?

You may be thinking, "Well isn't water water?"
Technically yes, H2O is H2O, but it's what's in that water that makes all the difference.
Summit Spring Water is extraordinarily pure just as it bubbles from the spring. And the few trace minerals that are even detectable in testing are essential to your health.
It's nature's perfect hydration solution and there's no other spring water like it.

What most people don't think about is what's in most other kinds of water and man-made beverages they consume regularly and in large quantities. Below we've listed a number of interesting facts to consider when you make a choice as to what
you want your body to be made of.

What’s wrong with municipal tap water?
Is chlorine really that bad?
What about Fluoridation?
Doesn’t my filter take care of all of those contaminants?
Can water really make that much of a difference?
What about other bottled waters?
Isn’t all spring water the same?
Aren’t spring water companies destroying and hoarding a valuable natural resource?
Does Summit Spring Water really taste that much better?
Two Different Kinds of Bottled Water?

It’s true that municipal water supplies are regulated by the federal government to ensure that they comply with federally mandated safe drinking water standards. But safety in this case means that chemicals like chlorine have been used to kill living organisms that can cause harm. If these chemicals kill other living organisms can they really be good for human consumption? They may not kill us in the short term but what are they doing to us over the course of our lives?

The other consideration is that although municipal water meets certain criteria when it leaves the building there’s really no way of knowing what kinds of contaminants are being picked up along the way from the plant to your tap. It’s a long system of pipes that lead through cities and towns (some built during the Lincoln administration), across your yard, into your home and through the copper, PVC, or lead pipes throughout your home. Summit Spring Water comes from the spring, through a short stainless steel pipe and right into a sterile container, that’s it.

Well, consider the fact that if you buy a tropical fish it will most likely come with a warning not to put it into freshly drawn tap water because the chlorine may sicken or kill it. You’ll be advised to let the water sit in an open container to off-gas the chlorine over the course of a couple of days. In fact, many municipal water treatment plants keep fish in tanks as an early warning system to identify problems with the levels of
chlorine in their water.

There's quite a bit of concern in the medical community that the current boom of GastroEsophageal Reflux Disease (GERD or Acid Reflux) may be linked to drinking chlorinated tap water. The belief is that chlorine (even in small amounts) kills off the good bacteria in our stomachs just as it kills the bad bacterial in the municipal water system. That throws off the chemical balance in the gut, causing unnaturally high acidity and poor absorption of vital nutrients. Many healthcare providers recommend drinking natural spring water exclusively. Furthermore, they warn against drinking other bottled and fountain beverages, all of which are likely to contain chlorine. You'll find more detailed information about the link to GERD here.

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Most municipal water supplies are fluoridated. Although Fluoridation programs have done wonders for the prevention of tooth decay, the fact is that fluoride is a poison. Doesn’t it make more sense to use a fluoride toothpaste or rinse to prevent tooth decay rather than guzzling it every day along with your much-needed water consumption?

Many people take precautions by installing expensive whole-house filtration systems or point-of-consumption filters under sinks. Others use filtering pitchers to make their water taste better. Although these systems certainly improve the taste of the water and may minimize the level of chemical and organic contaminants, most can’t remove every harmful component. The best bet is to start with pure clean water in the first place.

It really can. Over time all of those small amounts of contaminants you consume can bioaccumulate until they reach detrimental levels. In the 1800s Summit Spring Water was shipped to major cities around the world and sold as a healing tonic. In New York City it was sold in apothecaries for 40¢ per gallon. This is when coffee sold for 10¢ per pound. And people traveled from all over the world to stay at the Summit Spring Hotel to “take the waters.”

Why is this? Is Summit Spring Water really a magic healing tonic? Well, as much as we’d like to think it is, our theory is that the municipal water supplies were so bad during that time, with lead and creosote-soaked log pipes, the water made those who drank it sick. When they switched to Summit Spring Water it was probably the lack of contaminants that made people feel well again. What this tells us is that minimizing contaminants in water does in fact improve health.

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There are definitely some very fine spring waters in the world. But there’s also a lot of hype in the bottled water industry. Due to the boom in popularity of spring water and it’s limited supply, big international conglomerates have created a whole new category of “engineered waters,” which are essentially municipal tap water that in some cases is heavily filtered and chemically treated and in other cases is just plain old municipal tap water. They design a pretty label with mountains and rivers on it and give it a
natural-sounding name and people pay good money for it.

No, definitely not. Since the revision in the 1990s of the definition of the phrase “spring water” it’s really hard to know what you’re getting. Water labeled as spring water may not be from a specific spring but rather may come from a number of industrialized sources where huge boreholes are drilled and the water is pumped out of the ground at an absurd rate. It may then be heavily processed to filter out and kill all of the contaminants stirred up in the pumping process. Not quite the pristine spring nestled deep in the woods we all would like to imagine. Summit Spring is actually nestled in the cool green woods of Maine inside a small stone building constructed in the 1930s to protect it from the elements. And every precious drop of Summit Spring Water flows from the Earth all on its own and is bottled right at the spring just as it always has been.

In some cases, yes. But Summit Spring has always been independently owned and operated by people who value this rare gem of a spring. Today the spring looks much the same as it did seventy years ago. Before that it was exposed to the elements, so we believe it’s better protected now than it was hundreds of years ago. We take great care to protect the spring and the land that surrounds it. And our collection and gravity-fed bottling process is as pure and clean as the water itself. In fact, we even use our spring water to wash and sterilize the bottles and jugs.

Well, everybody we’ve ever asked has said that they’ve never tasted a crisper, cleaner, sweeter spring water. Many people also feel as though it has a cleansing property, especially after drinking coffee or alcoholic beverages. The only way to know for sure is to drink it for yourself and decide. We have thousands of loyal customers who tell our competitors to take a hike when they come around trying to sell their water—even when they offer it for far less money. Once you’ve enjoyed Summit Spring Water, it’s hard to drink anything else.

In a recent article, Michael Mascha, Editor of FineWaters.com discusses the confusion behind the "Two Different Kinds of Bottled Water" on the market today. To read the full article, click here for a printable PDF.

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