WEBVTT

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- That was a great tour through the cave.

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What'd you think?

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- You know what?

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Actually, it wasn't so scary at all.

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Once I got underground,
it was pretty cool.

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Plus I learned a ton, so
that's a win-win situation.

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- It's important to understand
how caves are formed

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and how water goes
through the cave passages.

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And if you knew about all the life

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that's actually found in there.

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- Remember that little trickle of water?

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That water has follow
us on our journey today,

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and has joined us here at
the surface of this spring.

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The water just shoots through the rocks,

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from the underground,
at a rate of 10 millions

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of gallons of water a day!

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It's pretty awesome.

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See the dye on the water?

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I collected a sample on the way out.

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That means that the water
that is on the surface

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can trickle down to the underground.

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It's connected to this huge
amount of flowing water!

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- Sure enough, the water is green.

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If there were any contamination upstream

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where we started this morning,

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it would have ended up right here.

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And it's also important to know

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that people are drinking
out of this water,

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and swimming downstream.

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- And since I'm the
ecologist and biologist,

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I'll just add that this water

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is also home to unique creatures.

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Protecting this groundwater
protects them as well.

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Springs are
groundwater-dependent ecosystems

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with unique types of
lifeforms all their own.

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- While caves aren't
everywhere, groundwater is.

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Around the world, we
depend on it for drinking,

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agriculture, and recreation
like fishing and swimming.

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So, let's throw out some
things that we can all do

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to help protect our groundwater and caves.

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- Conserving water use is also
important for many reasons,

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especially in areas that are really dry.

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Turn off the water when
you brush your teeth

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or consider taking a shorter shower,

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and making sure that those
leaky faucets get fixed.