Earlier this year, Perrier made headlines after destroying 2.9 million bottles of water suspected of contamination from germs of possible fecal origin. The Nestle subsidiary was ordered by French officials to immediately suspend operations at one of its wells in Vergèze, South of France, due to the contamination concerns in its source water.

Bacteria of fecal origin is deeply troubling anywhere, much less in your water. If ingested, the pathogens can cause significant health risks and gastrointestinal illnesses. Even the process of discarding this water requires special processes to prevent contamination.

For many consumers, it is an unbelievable situation for Perrier, a renowned mineral water brand with a long-standing quality history that dates back 50 years when one of the world’s most respected pitch men — Orson Welles — declared Perrier “Naturally sparkling, from the center of the earth.”

But here’s the catch: The center of the earth is 5,270 miles below ground. Perrier’s jeopardized well was within easy reach of human contaminants and groundwater deterioration at just 1,500 feet deep, give or take.

Globally, this is a common depth or range for commercial water sources, and most bottled waters are actually captured at the surface then subsequently treated by reverse osmosis.

And this is the how Planet H2O water is so different.

Our water is sourced from a previously untapped aquifer over 5,000 feet below the surface and has never been impacted by human activity — the source has been sealed deep underground for more than 400 million years.

The aquifer that feeds Planet H2O dates back to the Devonian geologic period, appropriately known as the “Age of Fishes” from the Paleozoic era of the Phanerozoic eon. Spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian period at 419.2 million years ago, to the beginning of the Carboniferous period at 358.9 Ma, the Age of Fishes predated humans, reptiles, birds, and flowers. Only insects were beginning to emerge on earth.

Our artesian water has been filtered for millions of years and is so deep that it’s free of all surface pollutants including forever chemicals and microplastics. Of special note among those is Tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen that occurs naturally in all surface water and may cause cancer.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAs) as well as perfluorooctanesulfonic and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOs) are estimated to be in over 200 million Americans’ drinking water at concentrations of 1 PPT or higher. These compounds can take up to hundreds to thousands of years to break down, potentially causing health problems if consumed, including increased risk of cancer and tumors.

Our water has none.

State and federal geologists have determined Planet H2O to be the deepest sourced artesian water in the country, and possibly the world. Taking no risks, we actually harvest Planet H2O water 5,080 feet deep below the surface — that’s more than three times the depth of most wells across the globe.

That means the great tasting water from Planet H2O encounters no surface water or atmosphere prior to being captured and sealed for your consumption. The walls of our well are protected by a steel casing that is cemented in place so no ground or fossil water from anywhere above the production zone can comingle with the water that is drawn from our well.

And we’ve gone miles further to preserve our water integrity. Planet H2O owns 71 acres surrounding our well, making it literally impossible for surface contamination through ground water.

That’s a big deal because plastic pollution in the United States has been well documented in natural environments including open waters, rivers, and sediments within lakes. In fact, Microplastics have been found in 83% of water samples from major metropolitan areas around the world, while the U.S. had the highest density of plastic per volume and highest microplastic occurrence in tap water (94%).

With no undesired qualities or contaminants, Planet H2O water requires no processing for consumption.

While misfortunes can befall many consumer products like Perrier at any point in time, we are confident of the purity, security and integrity of our source water, and we fully believe that you should be, too.