Why We Need Silica in Our Drinking Water
People around the world became all the more aware of what's in our drinking water, when natives faced dogs, pepper spray and rubber bullets to protect the American water supply in 2017. "Water is life," said one Indigenous man on the "front lines" of the #NoDAPL movement. "Without water, we wouldn't be here, theses plants wouldn't be here, there'd be no oxygen; we'd all die without it."
It turns out, however, it's not only oil spills that threatens our health. There are a myriad of questions about the chemicals and minerals that may be present from so called filtration, and worries of BPA seeping in through plastic bottles. At least one company, Rising Springs, Inc. is working to resolve both issues.
The family-owned business launched a monthly subscription service of 100 percent geothermal spring water from the source in Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest -- at a competitive price of $20.00 for 10 liters.
They deliver it directly to our door in an eco-friendly, low carbon footprint #7 BPA-free plastic bag housed in a 100 percent recycled box; and it's touted as "one of the purest waters on the planet," a natural mineral supplement water due to the amount of silica and fluoride that's present, and that it's completely free of contaminants.
But is all that really necessary for a glass of water?
We hadn't before heard about the benefits of drinking silica, so we sat with the RS fam to learn more.
What is a typical day like at the Springs, do you use machines or are you fetching water from a well like it's 1899?
We collect the water as it naturally rises from 2.2 miles deep within the Earth. We do so in a source house that is crafted from hand-hewn rock and timbers built in the shape of a crystal – acknowledging the silica quartz crystal environment the water lives in for thousands of years. To ensure we receive only what the Earth is offering at any one time, we flow the water by gravity through stainless steel pipes to the plant, which is 10 feet away from the source house. Once inside the plant the water is pumped into the clean room and the filler machine, the rest is done by hand.
As stewards of this source, how do you protect it from today's environmental impact issues?
Great question. The answer is the Earth has done that for us by a confluence of rock, depth, time. We then add in some reverence.
In the Sawtooth National Forest in south central Idaho, Rising Springs has a very unique terroir that acts as an impenetrable vault of protection from modern environmental issues.
Rock.
A large portion of Idaho is made up of a huge granite formation called the Idaho Batholith (which means "deep rock" in Greek). On the surface, the Batholith is about 23,000 square miles and the rock extends about 20 miles deep into the Earth.
Depth.
Rising Springs flows up from 2.2 miles deep beneath the Batholith, protected from depth to surface from any modern groundwater or environmental toxin by the granite terroir, and the water’s own tremendous pressure pushing outward as it rises.
Time.
Rising Springs is carbon-dated at more than 16,000 years old. It originated at a time when there were no environmental issues, and the water has been tested to be free of contaminants, absolutely pure to parts per quadrillion (ppq). That’s a million billions! The scientist who tested the source water for purity to ppq believes Rising Springs to be the purest water on the planet.
Reverence.
So we don’t have to do much to protect the spring from environmental issues. We do handle it with reverence and the highest of standards once it flows from the ground. We do that by not processing the water in any way; by packaging the water in its live, natural state. We can do this because of the exceptional (and constant) purity of the source water.
Rising Springs gives people the rare opportunity to drink a water that has all of the minerals and life-force our bodies have evolved to utilize and need. As Dr. Wrightson, ND, MS, RD says, “Rising Springs nourishes your cells in a way that no filtered water system can duplicate.”
May you tell us more about the benefits of silica and if it's infused in the water, or naturally occurring from the Spring?
The silica is naturally-occurring from the spring. Water holds the memory of everything it flows through and the fissures in the granite that Rising Springs flows up through are lined with silica quartz crystals.
Silica is widely-know as the beauty mineral because it is a building block of collagen – it provides integrity, firmness and elasticity to skin and connective tissue.
There are also promising studies about the efficacy of water-soluble silica in helping to eliminate aluminum from the body, and the implications of that for fighting Alzheimer’s.
Typically it's recommended that we drink 8 glasses of 8 ounces of water/day, does the level of fluoride change this recommendation with RS (8 oz four times/day)? I ask particularly because there's been some alarm about the levels of fluoride in our national water supply.
Yes – Rising Springs is classified not as a bottled water but as a natural mineral supplement because of the naturally-occurring calcium fluoride in the water. There are recommendations for daily intake of fluoride.
The naturally-occurring calcium fluoride in the flawlessly pure water of Rising Springs is significantly different from the industrial fluoride that is typically put into municipal water supplies. We understand people’s concerns about industrial fluoridation from both a health perspective and a political perspective.
We love that you're a family-owned business, what inspired the start of RS?
Great respect for the source. We feel honored to be the conduit that connects the water to the conscious humans who seek a pure, live, natural mineral supplement. We feel lucky to work together to create a business that we all feel passionate about.
Music is an essential component in getting us through the day out here in these urban jungles. What's the current music of choice at RS (or do you listen to the sounds of a babbling brook)?
Haha – at the source we do listen to the beautiful sound of the south fork of the Boise River! Tough question – there are too many to list: Shakey Graves, John Prine, Steely Dan, Bonnie Raitt, Mac DeMarco, Rising Appalachia, Sylvan Esso, Horse Feathers and anything FocusAtWill is playing for tuning in to what’s at hand.
Ohhh, we've got to step our playlist up with these! Final question: What kind of water bottles do the water experts use?
For glass, we like Life Factory, and for stainless steel, EarthWell. Be on the lookout for branded bottles on our site soon.
Will do!
Watch this vid by Health Unprocessed on the quest for clean drinking water.
