Abstract
<jats:p>Bottled spring waters are one of the most popular beverages in the world. The reasons for this popularity include its convenience, its wide availability, and its perceived purity. In addition, bottled waters produced from different springs contain differing kinds and amounts of dissolved minerals and gases. That, in turn, can produce subtly different flavors in water produced from different springs that many people find appealing. Those differences reflect a number of factors including the chemical composition of the rocks or sediments through which the groundwater, the nature of the microbial processes occurring in those rocks or sediments, and the hydrologic setting of the groundwater systems themselves. The purpose of this book is to examine how those factors combine to produce spring waters of differing chemical character and thus their desirability for bottling and human consumption. Thousands of springs around the world are sources for water-bottling operations. For practical reasons, the scope of this investigation will be limited to Europe and the United States. However, the approach and methods illustrated here are applicable to any large region on earth. The methodology used in this book begins by defining the different groundwater regions of the United States as originally identified by Meinzer (1923) and as modified by Heath (1984). Next, the geologic settings of each region are described as they affect the hydrologic and geochemical properties of the groundwater systems they contain. Finally, the unique hydrologic and geochemical characteristics of selected springs used for individual water-bottling operations are described.</jats:p>