Here’s a frequent question asked by people wanting to create positive sustainable changes in the world: Is it more effective to work as a change agent from inside the current system or is it better to be an agitator shaking things up on the outside? Katie Alcott, founder of Frank Water, has wrestled with this question in her mission to raise awareness about the importance of safe drinking water and sanitation. Her decision to infiltrate t… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Hello!

How are ya? All is well here, just playing a little catch up. The laundry/unpacking is the worst part to tackle after being away for a few days or more. sheesh!

Oh! How I miss the view of Mt. Shasta! Isn’t is gorgegous?!!? I definitely would not mind having this view on my daily drive everyday. I’ve never seen so much snow on it this time of year. The drive we took from Redding up to Mt. Shasta city is picturesque. Absolutely stunning everywhere. When out on the road were big fans of natural hot springs. A natural hot soak from nature is the best thing ever. I highly recommended the experience of enjoying a natural hot spring. It’s a nice way to end the day after a hike in the wilderness.

Before, I digress, I’ve always known about “hot springs” and “spring water” but it never really occurred to me that it was available for the masses. I learned about the importance of collecting natural spring water last summer after listening to Daniel Vitalis during the Raw Moms Summit. After learning such pertinent information I took it upon myself to start doing more research on it and find out where I could locate a spring to do so ourselves.

The thought was fascinating… collecting spring water straight from the source… no additives, unprocessed… full of rich minerals and pure! It was something I felt we had to do and since we’ve been on the road to eating cleaner and eliminating toxins from our daily lives. We’ve had a reverse osmosis system for a little over a year now and it’s been such a treat to have clean drinking water. I wish the entire system was throughout the house but unfortunately it’s just available in the kitchen. I’m certainly not complaining, but collecting spring water was just something really unfamothable until just the other day. I mean seriously, who needs bottled water when you get your water from the source!

Before leaving  town, we scrounged for a few bottles to take with and boxed them up. The day we arrived at the Headwaters of the Sacramento River we were so excited and noticed others were pulling up to the spring as well. Some filling up gallon bottles but mainly lots of varied sizes. It was such a sacred feeling once we walked up to the spring. I felt like we were taking something so special and didn’t want to be a water hog! LOL! Honestly it felt like we brought home gold. You get the feelin’ the place is so well respected, as it should be!!!

The area was pristine and not a bit of trash in site. I observed lots of locals pull right up to the spring fill up their water bottles like it was daily routine and my goodness sakes the jealously that raged over me during that moment. What a gem of a place to live so closely to. I’d be there as often as possible. Which is why, I feel as though the bottled spring water we hauled halfway down the state, is liquid gold!

Both boys experienced the spring but as I mentioned in my previous post update, the camera battery died and I had no way of recharging it, so pics with the eco tot were not taken (  Taking pictures wasn’t my main priority though. Experiencing the spring and taking it all in was. It’s not easy and convenient to lug around my Nikon D40 with 2 kids, water bottles and whatever else. haha!  After the eco tot (my 3 year old) took his first sip he said “this sure is some good water!” which proceeded with an “ahhhhhh” sound. It was hilarious and totally worth the trip.

Our collected spring water! So pure and crystal clear.

I kicked myself for leaving behind our growler from Etna it would have made a good collection jug!

Clark getting his first sip of natural spring water straight from the source- right out of the ground!

Can you believe there are people actually standing in line waiting for the spot were in?

& moi…  feeling so grateful here…

I paused for a long time before walking away with freshly collected spring water…

the taste was incredible and so refreshingly alive!

The lower portion of the headwaters. The area was beautiful with a park to hang out and picnic at. Big redwood trees surrounded the area and there was a lovely bridge that took off over the headwaters and into the woods. There was plenty of nature exploring to be had. We saw lot’s of butterflies and heard the sound of many birds. At the Mt. Shasta highway exit we even spotted a Bald Eagle nest!

We did just that and visited the headwaters twice on our trip. We wanted to do the second spring located in Mt. Shasta but we ran out of time. “So much to see, so much to do- so little time” syndrome quickly sank in and we really didn’t want to rush from one place to the next. Our time was somewhat limited. Next time, for sure… and a little more planning for that trip- like having a charged batteries

While in Mt. Shasta City we found Berryvale Natural Foods store which we immediately fell in love with! I heart natural foods stores and hunt them down in every town. I even picked up a few things our natural foods store doesn’t carry in bulk like unhulled sesame seeds, vanilla beans, blueberry roiboos tea, lucuma powder &  fresh raw honey comb because they weren’t a rip off like some natural food stores can be so we indulged a little.

I couldn’t believe how fairly priced everything was.  We even tried Coconut Bliss (Cherry Amaretto) for the first time and it was seriously {blissful} and it deserves a separate post cuz it’s my new obsession besides collection natural spring water-  hee, hee!

I can’t wait to get my hands on another pint. Mmm, so delish!  We picnicked Saturday and Sunday at the Headwaters park and ate yummy fresh food from the Berryvale cafe + noshed on fresh black berries from a local farm near Redding. We even tried sunflower sprouts for the first time and they were fantastic. Crunchy and a little sweet. The”sprout guy” was selling them right outside the market from the back of his truck.

I’m SO going to sprout some sunflower seeds just so I can have em’ on my salads and in my smoothies or atop my Coconut Bliss ice cream…which is something, I admittedly; did while sitting in the park watching the boys play with my husband. Ahhh… the memories… LOL!

I miss it so much that every time we leave and arrive home I do everything I can to bring home a little piece of our heaven…

This time it was natural spring water. OMGoodness, truly heaven on earth!

The plague reads: Mt Shasta, City of Pure Water… if, you don’t have time to head to the spring…  fill up here!

The thought that Nestle waters once  considered opening up a plant in Mt. Shasta is sickening!

Thank goodness for intervention by the city & it’s people because who knows what could happen once “Corporate America” gets involved.

It was beyond beautiful there and I’m really looking forward to visiting more springs in the near future.  Fern Spring in Yosemite Valley is next on our list!!

I highly recommend, finding a spring in your area, it’s worth the experience, in so many ways.

Have you collected natural spring water recently?  What are your thoughts?

Please don’t miss the Change.org petitions over on the right hand side of the site. Topics like offshore oil drilling and the Climate Bill are awaiting your support!

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Dear EarthTalk: I understand there’s an issue with the herbicide atrazine showing up in dangerous quantities in drinking water, mostly throughout the central U.S. Why is this happening and what’s being done about it?

Atrazine is an herbicide that is widely used across the U.S. and elsewhere to control both broadleaf and grassy weeds in large-scale agricultural operations growing corn, sorghum, sugar cane and other foods. While its use is credited with increasing agricultural yields by as much as six percent, there is a dark side. The nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reports that atrazine exposure has been shown to impair the reproductive systems of amphibians and mammals, and has been linked to cancer in both laboratory animals and humans. Male frogs exposed to minute doses of atrazine can develop female sex characteristics, including hermaphroditism and the presence of eggs in the testes. Researchers suspect that these effects are amplified when atrazine and other harmful agricultural chemicals are employed together.

Atrazine’s wide use makes its impacts that much scarier. NRDC reports that it is the most commonly detected pesticide or herbicide in U.S. waters, with the highest levels found in Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska. The Southeast also faces atrazine overload issues. What irks many public health advocates is that, even though study after study implicates atrazine in a long list of environmental and health problems, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) still allows farms to apply 75 million pounds of it each year. The European Union banned atrazine in 2004 due to persistent groundwater pollution there.

Critics of the EPA accuse the agency of selling out the health of the American people so industrial agricultural companies can make big profits. Indeed, in 2003, the EPA estimated a total annual economic impact, if atrazine were to be banned, of over $2 billion, including a yield loss plus increased herbicide cost averaging $28 per acre. In 2006, the EPA concluded that triazine herbicides (such as atrazine) posed “no harm that would result to the general U.S. population, infants, children or other…consumers.”

In light of the EPA’s refusal to consider a ban on atrazine, NRDC and other groups have taken up the cause of educating consumers about the dangers posed by our national addiction to dangerous herbicides and pesticides, and lobbying elected officials to add their voices. President Obama has promised to take a hard look at atrazine, but it remains to be seen how long it will be before any such review takes place.

Of course, organic farmers aren’t waiting around for Obama to ban atrazine. By planting diverse crops, rotating them regularly and employing other age-old agricultural techniques, a new generation of American farmers is learning that expensive chemicals may not be able to boost their yields enough to warrant the high financial and environmental costs associated with constant chemical spraying.

As for you and I, the best way to prevent ingesting atrazine with our tap water is to buy a water filter that employs activated charcoal. NRDC publishes a free list of water filter recommendations on its Simple Steps website. If you’re on a well, NRDC recommends having its water tested annually for atrazine and other contaminants. Even bottled water producers may not filter out atrazine from their source aquifers, so filtering at the tap is the only way consumers can be sure to remove it along with other contaminants.

CONTACTS: NRDC, www.nrdc.org; Simple Steps, www.simplesteps.org; EPA, www.epa.gov.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk®, c/o E – The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; earthtalk@emagazine.com. E is a nonprofit publication. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe; Request a Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

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United By Blue is a new start up, which will leverage sales of organic cotton T-shirts and tote bags to coordinate ocean beach clean-ups around America. For each shirt or bag purchased one pound of marine debris is said to be collected.

The venture is brainchild of Brian Linton, who believes that, “Because the oceans are so vast and deep, consumers have the mentality of “out of site [sic] out of mind” and this needs to change.” *

We’re not sure such change needs to come via the purchase of more product, but Brian is convinced it will… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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This month Algalita has received support from a rather unusual event. Destination… Read the full story on TreeHugger

One of the shows that stood out this year at the Milan Furniture Fair was the Design Academy Eindhoven’s Question exhibition at the up and coming district Ventura Lambrate. With all this excess of design and the various crisis going on (environmental, social, economic,…), it is nice to see that one group sat down and asked questions about the role of design. And they encouraged visitors to Read the full story on TreeHugger