- That was a great tour through the cave.
What'd you think?
- You know what?
Actually, it wasn't so scary at all.
Once I got underground, it was pretty cool.
Plus I learned a ton, so that's a win-win situation.
- It's important to understand how caves are formed
and how water goes through the cave passages.
And if you knew about all the life
that's actually found in there.
- Remember that little trickle of water?
That water has follow us on our journey today,
and has joined us here at the surface of this spring.
The water just shoots through the rocks,
from the underground, at a rate of 10 millions
of gallons of water a day!
It's pretty awesome.
See the dye on the water?
I collected a sample on the way out.
That means that the water that is on the surface
can trickle down to the underground.
It's connected to this huge amount of flowing water!
- Sure enough, the water is green.
If there were any contamination upstream
where we started this morning,
it would have ended up right here.
And it's also important to know
that people are drinking out of this water,
and swimming downstream.
- And since I'm the ecologist and biologist,
I'll just add that this water
is also home to unique creatures.
Protecting this groundwater protects them as well.
Springs are groundwater-dependent ecosystems
with unique types of lifeforms all their own.
- While caves aren't everywhere, groundwater is.
Around the world, we depend on it for drinking,
agriculture, and recreation like fishing and swimming.
So, let's throw out some things that we can all do
to help protect our groundwater and caves.
- Conserving water use is also important for many reasons,
especially in areas that are really dry.
Turn off the water when you brush your teeth
or consider taking a shorter shower,
and making sure that those leaky faucets get fixed.