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Ryan Gonzalez, 44, says that he has been drinking the “miraculous water” from Red Rock Spring for a decade, and that it has made his dreams more vivid and made him feel more resilient against illness.
44岁的瑞安·冈萨雷斯说，他已经喝了十年来自红岩泉的“神奇之水”，这让他的梦境更清晰，也让他感觉对疾病的抵抗力更强。
A few years ago, he tried to switch to bottled spring water but ultimately returned to his favorite spot, he said.
他说，几年前，他曾尝试改喝瓶装泉水，但最终还是回到了他最喜欢的红岩泉。
Mr. Gonzalez, who owns a “botanical barbershop” in San Francisco that uses plant-based grooming products, said he and his family drank only raw milk, avoided processed foods and stuck to water collected from local natural springs.
冈萨雷斯在旧金山开了一家使用植物性美容产品的“植物美发店”，他说他和他的家人只喝生牛奶，不吃加工食品，并坚持饮用从当地收集的天然泉水。
And not everyone who sips from the spring is motivated by a belief in raw water.
不是所有喝泉水的人都是因为信仰生水。
On a recent morning, a UPS driver pulled over in his brown truck to replenish his reusable water bottle, a daily ritual he began after he noticed the crowds at the Highway 1 pullout along his delivery route.
最近的一个早晨，一名UPS物流公司的司机把他的棕色卡车停在路边，给可重复使用的水瓶重新装满了水，自从他在送货路线上注意到1号公路岔路口的人群后，取水就成了他的日常仪式。
Several construction workers and campers also showed up to fill their bottles.
几位建筑工人和露营者也来了，把瓶子里装满了水。
Randy Dahlgren, a professor at the University of California, Davis, who studies watersheds, said that compared with other natural water sources, springs tended to be safer to drink from since they originated deep in the ground and the water was naturally filtered through layers of soil that could remove microbial pathogens.
兰迪·达尔格伦是加利福尼亚大学戴维斯分校的一位研究河水流域的教授，他说与其他天然水源相比，饮用泉水往往更安全，因为泉水源于地下深处，经过多层土壤的自然过滤，可以去除微生物病原体。
Fresh spring water can contain calcium, magnesium and other beneficial nutrients, and may not contain microplastics or “forever chemicals” as some tap water does, he said.
他说，新鲜的泉水可能含有钙、镁和其他有益的营养物质，并且可能不像一些自来水那样含有微塑料或“永久性化学物质”。
But raw water can also be tainted with pesticides from nearby farms, contain arsenic that naturally occurs in soil, and harbor bacteria such as E. Coli and salmonella that can make people extremely sick.
但是生水也可能被附近农场的杀虫剂污染，含有土壤中天然存在的砷，也可能含有使人生重病的大肠杆菌和沙门氏菌。
In 2022, 19 people in Montana became ill, including one who was hospitalized, after drinking from what they thought was a spring but was actually creek drainage.
在2022年，蒙大拿州有19人患病，其中一人住院，原因是他们饮用了自以为是泉水，但实际上是溪流排污道的水。
And the only way to know if the water is safe would be to regularly test it for the more than 90 contaminants that tap water is monitored for, experts said.
专家表示，要知道泉水是否安全，唯一的办法是定期检测其中是否含有90多种污染物，自来水也进行了这种监测。
Any single test wouldn’t be sufficient because a rainstorm could shift the flows and introduce sewage runoff from nearby farms or campgrounds.
任何单次的测试都是不够的，因为暴雨可能会改变水流，并把附近农场或露营地的污水引入泉水。
“The idea that ‘just because something is natural is automatically good for you’ is inherently flawed,” said Daniel McCurry, a water quality expert at the University of Southern California.
“仅仅因为某样东西是天然的，就自动认为这种东西对你有好处，这种想法本身就有缺陷，”南加州大学的水质专家丹尼尔·麦柯里说，
“There’s all kind of stuff that’s perfectly natural that can make you very sick.”
“有各种各样纯天然的东西会让你病得很重。”
Dr. McCurry said he drank from the tap everywhere he went in America, and that a simple, off-the-shelf water filter could remove most of what might worry people, such as trace amounts of pharmaceuticals or lead from old pipes.
麦柯里博士说，他在美国无论走到哪里都喝自来水，用一个很简单的、现买现用的水过滤器就可以去除大部分令人担忧的物质，比如微量的药物或旧管道中的铅。
And Dr. Dahlgren wondered why spring enthusiasts were “killing the environment” by driving miles for a sip when safe, high-quality water was available from the tap, especially in the Bay Area.
达尔格伦博士还想知道，为什么那些泉水爱好者宁愿驱车数英里去喝一口泉水，从而“破坏环境”，也不愿去喝安全、优质的自来水，尤其是在（缺水的）湾区。
More broadly, water experts said that shunning tap water undermined trust in the public water system, which could have dangerous consequences.
更广泛地说，水专家表示，回避自来水会破坏人们对公共供水系统的信任，这可能会产生危险的后果。
But Red Rock Spring followers remain devout.
但是红岩泉的追随者仍然忠于泉水。
Mr. Gonzalez sometimes worries what he and his family would do if something were to happen to Red Rock Spring, he said.
冈萨雷斯说，他有时会担心，如果红岩泉出问题了，他和他的家人该怎么办。
His family avoids fluoridated water, and the spring water has become one of the most fundamental parts of his life; his younger daughter has grown up on it, and coffee tastes good to him only if brewed with water from Red Rock Spring.
他的家人避免饮用含氟水，泉水已经成为他生活中最基本的部分之一，他的小女儿是喝泉水长大的，而且只有用红岩泉的水冲泡的咖啡，他才觉得好喝。
“When we go on vacation,” he said, “it’s one of the things I miss the most.”
“我们去外地度假的时候，”他说，“红岩泉是我最思念的东西之一。”
