It takes special circumstances in nature to create Poland Spring® Brand 100% Natural Spring Water, and we go to great lengths to carefully select and manage our spring water sources.* See how Mother Nature helps our natural spring water come to be. 
 
 *We proudly source our water from 8 springs across the great state of Maine. ||||| BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (CN) — Nestle’s marketing and sales of Poland Spring water has been “a colossal fraud perpetrated against American consumers,” 11 people claim in a federal class action. 
 
 Filing their suit Tuesday in Connecticut, where Nestle is based, the lead plaintiffs are from the Nutmeg State as well as New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. They say they would not have paid a premium for the water had they known it did not actually come from eight purported natural springs in Maine. 
 
 Rather than being “100% Natural Spring Water,” the “products all contain ordinary groundwater that defendant collects from wells it drilled in saturated plains or valleys where the water table is within a few feet of the earth’s surface,” lead plaintiff Mark J. Patane says in the complaint. 
 
 “The vast bulk of that groundwater is collected from Maine’s most populous counties in southwestern Maine, only a short distance from the New Hampshire border,” the complaint continues. 
 
 As required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, all bottled spring water must be collected either at the source of a naturally occurring spring or from a well that draws from a natural spring. 
 
 “In hydrogeological parlance, all such well water must be ‘hydraulically connected’ to a genuine spring,” the complaint states. But the class says that’s not the case for defendant Nestle Waters North America’s eight sites in Maine. 
 
 Reacting to the lawsuit, a spokeswoman for Nestle Waters North America held true to the company’s slogan. 
 
 “The claims made in the lawsuit are without merit and an obvious attempt to manipulate the legal system for personal gain,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. “Poland Spring is 100% spring water. It meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations defining spring water, all state regulations governing spring classification for standards of identity, as well as all federal and state regulations governing spring water collection, good manufacturing practices, product quality and labeling. We remain highly confident in our legal position.” 
 
 Patane claims that if the eight sites used to bottle water did contain a spring, and the Connecticut-based company bottles 1 billion gallons a year, the spring would have to flow at an average rate of 245 gallons per minute: more forcefully than a 2-inch-diameter fire hose at 40 pounds per square inch. 
 
 “Such a spring would be plainly visible – more like a geyser than a spring – and undoubtedly well known,” plaintiffs’ attorney Craig Raabe says in the 325-page complaint. “Yet there is no photographic proof that even one such spring – much less eight – exists on or near defendant’s sites in Maine.” 
 
 The plaintiffs say the famous Poland Spring in Poland Spring, Maine, ran dry nearly 50 years ago — decades before Nestle Waters bought the Poland Spring brand name. The “spring” Nestle claims exists in Poland Spring is at the bottom of a lake. 
 
 “It has never been proven to exist, and the evidence that defendant itself filed with Maine regulators shows it does not exist,” the complaint states. “Because the Poland Spring is not a source of its products, defendant’s use of the ‘Poland Spring’ brand name is unlawful.” 
 
 The class claims Nestle has gone so far as to fake the existence of springs on its sites “by causing well water to flow artificially through pipes or plastic tubes into wetlands that contain no genuine springs.” 
 
 “Artificial man-made ‘springs’ do not satisfy FDA standards,” the complaint states. “Genuine springs must have a ‘natural orifice’ through which water ‘flows naturally’ to the surface, without human assistance. By faking the existence of springs, defendant is defrauding its consumers,” according to the complaint. 
 
 Even worse, the class claims, are the conditions surrounding groundwater-collection sites. 
 
 “Unknown to the general public, one or more wells at each of defendant’s six largest volume groundwater collection sites in Maine – which in recent years have collectively supplied up to 99 percent of the water in Poland Spring Water products – are near a present or former human waste dump, refuse pit, landfill, ash pile, salt mound, farm where pesticides were previously used, fish hatchery or toxic petroleum dump site,” the complaint states. 
 
 “While Poland Spring Water products are not frequently contaminated because defendant disinfects – and in some cases has purified – the groundwater it collects, Poland Spring Water labels are misleading under FDA rules because, in addition to falsely advertising that the bottles contain ‘100% Natural Spring Water’ purportedly sourced from natural springs, the labels depict pristine scenes of water flowing down a verdant hillside or a forest pond to convey an image of natural purity when, in fact, the vast bulk of the water is drawn from wells in low-lying populated areas near potential sources of contamination. The labels are also deceptive to the extent defendant purifies the water. If consumers knew where defendant’s wells were actually located, rather than being misled by defendant’s falsely reassuring labels depicting pristine scenes, and knew the extent to which defendant treated or purified the water, they would not buy, or would not pay premium prices for, Poland Spring Water products.” 
 
 None of this appears to have damaged sales. 
 
 Poland Spring Water revenue nationwide was about $400 million in 2007 and has ranged from $300 million to $900 million annually for each of the past nine years. 
 
 The plaintiffs call it marketing fraud, which enables Nestle to sell its water more cheaply than competitors in the spring-water market, but charge more than those in the purified-water market. 
 
 They seek class certification, an injunction and at least $5 million in damages for false advertising, breach of contract, deceptive labeling and consumer-law violations. 
 
 Attorney Raabe is with Izard, Kindall and Raabe of West Hartford. Co-counsel from New Jersey, New York and California also signed the complaint. 
 
 In California, the federal government faces a suit for information on Nestle’s permit to pump millions of gallons of water from Strawberry Creek in San Bernardino National Forest. Nestle pays just $524 a year for the permit, which it uses to sell Arrowhead and Pure Life bottled water. 
 
 Like this: Like Loading... ||||| Would you be willing to shell out a few more bucks for a product marketed as “spring” water than you would for plain old groundwater? A group of consumers say in a class-action lawsuit they wouldn’t have paid a premium for Nestlé’s Poland Spring water had they been aware it allegedly doesn’t come from natural springs in Maine. 
 
 A 325-page lawsuit [PDF] filed in Connecticut this week by eleven plaintiffs claims that for more than 20 years, Nestlé Waters’ marketing and sales of Poland Spring water has been “a colossal fraud perpetrated against American consumers.” 
 
 The average shopper associates spring water with a naturally occuring spring, signifying “purity and high quality,” the complaint says, thus allowing companies to charge a premium price compared to water that doesn’t come from a spring, like filtered tap water. 
 
 The group of plaintiffs claim that Nestlé has been selling common bottled groundwater under the Poland Spring brand since 1993 and illegally mislabeling it “100% Natural Spring Water.” 
 
 Spring water, defined 
 
 The complaint alleges that “not one drop” of Poland Spring Water emanates from a water source that complies with the Food and Drug Administration’s definition of spring water. 
 
 That standard says that water “derived from an underground formation from which water flows naturally to the surface of the earth may be ‘spring water.'” It can only be collected at the spring, or through a bore hole that taps into the underground formation feeding the spring. A natural force should also cause the water to flow to the surface “through a natural orifice.” 
 
 Any spring water that’s collected “with use of an external force” has to be from the same underground stratum as the spring, and there has to be a “measurable hydraulic connection using a hydrogeologically valid method between the bore hole and the natural spring.” 
 
 In addition, the water must have “all the physical properties, before treatment, and be of the same composition and quality, as the water that flows naturally to the surface of the earth.” 
 
 The lawsuit claims that Nestlé “misidentifies hundreds of millions of gallons of Poland Spring Water as ‘spring water,'” and has allegedly misrepresented on every Poland Spring Water label that the water in the bottle came from one or more of eight purported “natural springs” in Maine. 
 
 Common groundwater? 
 
 Rather than being collected from “pristine mountain or forest springs as the images on those labels depict, Poland Spring Water products all contain ordinary groundwater that defendant collects from wells it drilled in saturated plains or valleys where the water table is within a few feet of the earth’s surface,” the lawsuit claims. 
 
 To that end, most of the water is collected from Maine’s most populous counties in the southwestern part of the state, the complaint alleges, and not in remote natural surroundings. 
 
 The plaintiffs assert that building a well to draw water from a large aquifer that happens to feed a spring popping up elsewhere “does not qualify the well water as spring water.” 
 
 “The wells must tap the aquifer at the same layer, or stratum, from which water flows naturally into the spring, and the well water must be proven by valid scientific means to be interconnected with the water flowing at the spring,” the lawsuit claims. 
 
 The complaint also alleges that none of Nestlé’s eight sites in Maine are hydraulically connected to water that flows from the natural orifice of a genuine spring; nor do they contain water that is collected from the same underground stratum that feeds a natural spring; and no Poland Spring products contain water that has the same “physical, chemical and quality characteristics as water that flows from the natural orifice of a genuine spring.” 
 
 Noting that Nestlé bottles 1 billion gallons of Poland Spring water per year, the complaint points out that even if the eight sites the company uses to bottle water did contain a spring, it would have to flow at an average rate of 245 gallons per minute. That’s more force than a two-inch diameter fire hose spraying at 40 pounds per square inch. 
 
 “Such a spring would be plainly visible – more like a geyser than a spring – and undoubtedly well known,” the lawsuit states. “Yet there is no photographic proof that even one such spring – much less eight – exists on or near defendant’s sites in Maine.” 
 
 To that end, the complaint claims there is no historical evidence for six of the purported springs, and that two are former springs that no longer exist. 
 
 “The famous Poland Spring in Poland Spring, Maine, which Defendant’s labels claim is a source of Poland Spring Water, ran dry nearly 50 years ago, decades before Defendant bought the Poland Spring brand name,” reads the lawsuit. “The ‘spring’ Defendant now claims exists in Poland Spring is at the bottom of a lake. It has never been proven to exist, and the evidence that Defendant itself filed with Maine regulators shows it does not exist.” 
 
 The lawsuit even claims that Nestlé has taken extreme measures to fake springs on its sites, “by causing well water to flow artificially through pipes or plastic tubes into wetlands that contain no genuine springs.” 
 
 Such man-made springs don’t satisfy FDA standards, the complaint says. 
 
 As a result, Poland Spring water doesn’t qualify as spring water, “and cannot be lawfully labeled or sold as ‘spring water,’ much less as ‘100% Natural Spring Water,'” the lawsuit states. To that end, those products should be labeled and sold as “bottled water,” “drinking water,” “well water,” even “purified water” or a particular type of purified water, the complaint suggests. 
 
 The lawsuit is seeking class certification, an injunction, and at least $5 million in damages for false advertising, breach of contract, deceptive labeling, and consumer-law violations. 
 
 Nestlé defends its water 
 
 In a statement to Consumerist, a spokesperson for Nestlé Waters North America says the claims made in the lawsuit are without merit and “an obvious attempt to manipulate the legal system for personal gain.” 
 
 “Poland Spring is 100% spring water,” the statement reads. “It meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations defining spring water, all state regulations governing spring classification for standards of identity, as well as all federal and state regulations governing spring water collection, good manufacturing practices, product quality, and labeling. We remain highly confident in our legal position.” ||||| A Connecticut law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against the owner of Poland Spring, claiming the company’s source for its Maine bottled water is not a spring. 
 
 The case is not a first: Nestlé Waters, which owns Poland Spring, was sued 14 years ago on similar claims and another Nestlé Water brand was sued in a similar case in Illinois in 2012. 
 
 In 2003, the company was sued, also in Connecticut, because its advertising suggested that the water in Poland Spring came from a source deep in the woods of Maine when, in fact, the principal source was located near a parking lot. That suit was settled with Nestlé Waters offering about $8 million in consumer discounts and more than $2 million in charitable donations. 
 
 Nestlé, headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, owns a number of regional bottled water brands. The water originally came from Poland Spring, but now the company draws its water from sources throughout the state, including in Hollis and Fryeburg. 
 
 The latest suit, filed on behalf of 11 consumers, alleges that Poland Spring’s bottles are inaccurately labeled as spring water. It is seeking at least $5 million in damages. 
 
 “Breaching and exploiting is customers’ trust to reap massive undue sales and profits is (the) defendant’s entire business model,” the suit alleges. 
 
 The lawsuit claims that Poland Springs’ water comes not from a spring but instead is “ordinary groundwater” from wells. 
 
 “The claims made in the lawsuit are without merit and an obvious attempt to manipulate the legal system for personal gain,” a spokeswoman for Nestlé Waters North America said Wednesday. “Poland Spring is 100 percent spring water…. We remain highly confident in our legal position.” 
 
 The company said it meets the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations defining spring water, all state regulations governing spring classifications, and regulations governing spring water collection, product quality and labeling. 
 
 Edward Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at: 
 
 [email protected] 
 
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– Nestle's Poland Spring bottled water does come from Maine, but its state of origin isn't the issue being raised in a class-action lawsuit against the company. In what they call a "colossal fraud," 11 plaintiffs in eight states argue the "100% Natural Spring Water" is actually "ordinary groundwater" drawn from wells "in low-lying populated areas near potential sources of contamination," including a landfill and ash pile, per Courthouse News. The FDA classifies spring water as "derived from an underground formation from which water flows naturally to the surface of the earth." But the lawsuit, seeking at least $5 million in damages, claims Nestle's wells are unconnected to a natural spring, which "has never been proven to exist," reports Consumerist. If such a spring did exist, it certainly wouldn't produce 1 billion gallons of Poland Spring water bottled each year, say the plaintiffs, who also accuse Nestle of faking springs "by causing well water to flow artificially through pipes or plastic tubes into wetlands." Consumers "would not buy, or would not pay premium prices for, Poland Spring Water products" if they knew the truth, reads the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Connecticut. According to its website, Poland Spring water is collected "before it emerges at the surface" as a spring. In a statement, Nestle adds "Poland Spring is 100% spring water" that meets FDA regulations. The Press Herald notes Nestle agree to $8 million in consumer discounts plus charitable donations in order to settle a similar suit in 2003. (This man decided to sue Kellogg's after realizing how much sugar is in its cereals.)