A Sustainable Water Source
We encourage you to consider the source of your drinking water, bottled and from the tap. Similarly, we should consider the source of information we seek.
So when we were challenged with the question, “Is Nicolet Natural Artesian Water from a sustainable source?”, we thought it best you hear the answer from a scientist with the expertise to address the subject.
Below you’ll find a detailed answer by Ronald D. Stieglitz, who holds a doctorate in geology and is professor emeritus of natural and applied sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He was also associate dean of graduate studies and research there. He…
- Has spent 40 years studying the geology and hydrogeology of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region.
- Consults and serves as an expert witness on ground-water movement and contamination, and geologic and hydrogeologic suitability of land for development and solid waste disposal.
The Short Answer:
Is the water source sustainable? If we manage it with care
We’re bottling water from a ground-water aquifer that is deep below the ground and fairly isolated from the water cycle at the surface. It takes a long time for rain and snow to recharge the aquifer. The water we’re bottling is more than 20 years old. But the aquifer still has artesian pressure. That means since we started bottling in 1985 we have not withdrawn more than is being replenished to maintain the natural artesian pressure of the confined aquifer.
We haven’t taken out too much thus far, and if we continue to bottle water at the same rate, the source should provide pristine, delicious water for many generations.
What happens if many more people want to start drinking Nicolet Natural Artesian Water?
A reply from the president of Nicolet Forest Bottling Company, David Holdener:
Good question. It would be a wonderful challenge for our business, and we’ll have to cross that bridge when it arises. In 26 years of operation we’ve seen peaks and valleys in demand, but consumption has been steady. Further, transportation costs naturally make it cost prohibitive to profitably ship water long distances. Because we are committed to serving people well and protecting the natural resources in which our employees and customers live, work and play, we will continue operating with respect for what gives us this business. If we take more than the aquifer can support, we all have much to lose.
We would love to sell more, and we can bottle more than we have been, so tell your friends. We are withdrawing less than one third of our licensed capacity. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to follow the guidelines of Stieglitz and other hydrogeologists with whom we’ve consulted to respect the aquifer’s limits. As such, we intend to remain a small, locally owned business that serves a limited geographic location, the upper Midwest, with Something Special From Wisconsin™.
The Expert’s Answer:
By Ronald D. Stieglitz, Ph.D. geology, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Sustainability
Sustainability is a word we now hear often. The concept or philosophy seems to be everywhere. Books, scientific papers, technical reports and Web sites addressing the subject abound, and more continually appear. There are news reports of sustainable cities, sustainable developments, sustainable agriculture, sustainable ecosystems and sustainable wildlife populations. Many more examples exist. It is certainly fashionable to talk about sustainable energy and sustainable resources.
But what does it mean, and can we apply the concept in a practicable way? The answers are more difficult than might be expected.
There are numerous definitions of sustainability. In a broad and general sense, the United Nations defined it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”(WECD, 1987).
From that relatively straightforward statement, the concept has expanded to become a field of enquiry that includes a wide range of subjects from natural resources to cultures. Local to national governments, businesses and industries, and nonprofit organizations all consider the concept when planning for the future.
To get a better idea of what sustainability means in the area of natural resources, let’s compare petroleum and water. Both are widely exploited and critical to modern societies.
Petroleum
While some scientists suggest an abiotic or inorganic origin for petroleum, most believe it forms from the remains of living things, primarily microorganisms. Special conditions are required to convert the organic remains into the carbon and hydrogen compounds that comprise petroleum. Not only are these generation and collection processes specialized, they also occur infrequently and operate slowly over long time frames. Once formed in organic-rich source rocks, the petroleum might move or migrate to more porous reservoir rocks. If a seal is present, the petroleum can be trapped, forming an economically valuable resource.
Biological Pump
Diagram courtesy of the U. S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study.
Finding petroleum requires sophisticated concepts, powerful computers, state-of-art instruments and expensive machines. Therefore, when a deposit is located and the wells begin to pump, the lifetime of that specific accumulation depends only on the amount in place and the rate of extraction.
The modern oil industry uses many techniques to efficiently extract the petroleum and extend the life of each accumulation, but eventually the pool or field is abandoned. There is disagreement about the total amount of petroleum in the crust and how long it will last, but the amount is finite. Replacement rates are very low and much of the resource is burned or converted into products like plastics, and not recycled back into the reservoir. It is not a sustainable resource.
Water
The other liquid, water, is even more basic and important to societies and indeed all life. In the United States and in most developed countries, people take water for granted. That is not the case in many parts of the world where clean and dependable water supplies are not available.
The Hydrologic Cycle or Water Cycle is a conceptual model that concisely explains where water occurs in the Earth’s system and how it moves from one reservoir to another. The cycle has been reasonably quantified for the entire system, and for specific areas and regions. We have a good measure of how much water is contained in each reservoir, for example the ocean, and how much moves between reservoirs and at what rates.
Reservoirs Of The Hydrologic Cycle And Approximate Residence Times
| Water Source | Volume Cubic Miles |
Percent of Total Water |
Percent of Fresh Water |
Residence Time |
Oceans and Seas |
321,000,000 |
96.5 |
~4,000 years |
|
Ice Caps and Glaciers |
5,773,00 |
1.74 |
68.7 |
~10–1,000 years |
Fresh Groundwater |
2,526,000 |
0.76 |
30.1 |
Weeks to centuries |
Saline Groundwater |
3,088,000 |
0.94 |
Thousands of years |
|
Soil Moisture |
3,959 |
0.001 |
0.05 |
Months to years |
Ground Ice and Permafrost |
71,970 |
0.022 |
0.86 |
Centuries |
Freshwater Lakes |
21,830 |
0.007 |
0.26 |
~10 years |
Saline Lakes |
20,490 |
0.005 |
Decades |
|
Atmosphere |
3,095 |
0.001 |
0.04 |
~10 days |
Swamps |
2,752 |
0.0008 |
0.03 |
1 to 10 years |
Rivers |
509 |
0.0002 |
0.006 |
2 to 4 weeks |
Biosphere |
269 |
0.0001 |
0.003 |
~1 week |
The model’s first lesson is that water is a renewable resource, not because more water is formed and added, but because it is continually recycled through the system.
A second lesson is that different components of the cycle operate at different rates, and fresh water is stored in some reservoirs for longer periods of time than in others. For example, water is stored in ground water, particularly in deep aquifers, and in ice for periods ranging from decades to centuries, as was the case of the Pleistocene glaciers.
Another lesson is that water can be overused, wasted or contaminated such that, in some situations, it is not a recyclable or sustainable resource.
Nicolet Natural Artesian Water
Nicolet Forest Bottling Company collects water from a reservoir (a ground-water aquifer) that is somewhat isolated from the near-surface parts of the hydrologic cycle. The Earth materials beneath the bottling facility can be simply described from the surface downward as:
- Soil.
- A layer of sand that holds and transmits water effectively, and is in direct connection with the atmosphere and the lakes, streams and wetlands in the area.
- A thick layer of material through which water does not move easily.
- A second layer of sand from which the water is withdrawn.
- Bedrock.
Over the thousands of years since advancing and retreating glaciers deposited these materials, a small percentage of the rain and snow melt leaks from the upper sand through the underlying layer and into the lower sand aquifer. Whereas the upper sand exchanges water relatively quickly with surface-water bodies and wetlands, the lower sand loses a lesser amount of water than there is available to replace it, resulting in a buildup of pressure and a situation known as artesian conditions.
Is the Nicolet Forest Bottling Company’s water resource sustainable?
Although a detailed scientific investigation has not yet been conducted, several pieces of evidence speak to this question. First, the aquifer continues to exhibit artesian conditions. It has not been depressurized. Second, samples analyzed and dated by the Tritium method indicate that the water being withdrawn is more than 20 years old, having entered the system at about the time significant extraction began. Both suggest that the resource is sustainable at the past rates of withdrawal, and with good management, can remain so in the future.
Further Readings
Costanza, R., Graumlich, L. J. & Steffen, W. (eds), (2007). Sustainability or Collapse? An Integrated History and Future of People on Earth. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press.
Newman, P and Jennings, I., (2008). Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems. Washington D.C.: Island Press.
Norton, B. (2005). Sustainability, A Philosophy of Adaptive Ecosystem Management. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
