Editing Spring (hydrology) (section)

== Uses ==
[[Image:Maramec Spring fishing ls.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|[[Trout fishing]] on [[Maramec Spring]] in [[Missouri]]]]
Springs have been used for a variety of human needs - including drinking water, domestic water supply, irrigation, [[Watermill|mill]]s, navigation, and [[hydroelectricity|electricity generation]]. Modern uses include recreational activities such as fishing, swimming, and floating; [[hot springs|therapy]]; water for livestock; fish hatcheries; and supply for bottled [[mineral water]] or bottled spring water. Springs have taken on a kind of mythic quality in that some people falsely believe that springs are always healthy sources of drinking water. They may or may not be. One must take a comprehensive water quality test to know how to use a spring appropriately, whether for a mineral bath or drinking water. Springs that are managed as spas will already have such a test.

===Drinking water===
Springs are often used as sources for bottled water.<ref name="Bottlemania">{{cite book |last1=Royte |first1=Elizabeth |title=Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle Over America's Drinking Water |date=2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1596913721 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yIz0BsS5l80C |access-date=14 November 2021}}</ref> When purchasing bottled water labeled as spring water one can often find the water test for that spring on the website of the company selling it.

===Irrigation===
Springs have been used as sources of water for gravity-fed irrigation of crops.<ref name="irrigation">{{cite journal |last1=Clement |first1=Christopher Ohm |last2=Moseley |first2=Michael E. |title=The Spring-Fed Irrigation System of Carrizal, Peru: A Case Study of the Hypothesis of Agrarian Collapse |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |date=1991 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=425–443 |doi=10.1179/009346991791549059 }}</ref> Indigenous people of the [[Southwestern United States|American Southwest]] built spring-fed [[acequia]]s that directed water to fields through canals. The Spanish missionaries later used this method.<ref name="acequias">{{cite web |title=Acequias and River Systems |url=https://www.worldheritagesa.com/Missions/The-Acequias |access-date=15 November 2021}}</ref><ref name="NYT acequia">{{cite news |last1=Romero |first1=Simon |title=Drought Hits the Southwest, and New Mexico's Canals Run Dry |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/us/acequias-drought-new-mexico-southwest.html |access-date=15 November 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=13 July 2021}}</ref>

=== Sacred springs ===
{{main|Holy well}}
[[File:La Reana2.jpg|thumb|''[[Fontes Tamarici]]'', in [[Spain]]]]
A sacred spring, or holy well, is a small body of water emerging from underground and revered in some religious context: [[Christianity|Christian]] and/or [[Paganism|pagan]] and/or other.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ray |first=Celeste |date=2011 |title=The Sacred and the Body Politic at Ireland's Holy Wells |journal=International Social Science Journal |volume=62 |issue=205/206 |pages=271–85 |doi=10.1111/issj.12000}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Byrne |first=Garreth |date=2002 |title=Holy Wells in Britain and Ireland |journal=Contemporary Review |volume=280 |issue=1636 |page=295 |via=[[EBSCOhost]]}}</ref> The lore and mythology of [[ancient Greece]] was replete with sacred and storied springs—notably, the [[Corycian nymphs|Corycian]], [[Pierian Spring|Pierian]] and [[Castalian Spring|Castalian]] springs. In medieval Europe, pagan sacred sites frequently became [[Christianization|Christianized]] as holy wells. The term "holy well" is commonly employed to refer to any water source of limited size (i.e., not a lake or river, but including pools and natural springs and seeps), which has some significance in local [[folklore]]. This can take the form of a particular name, an associated [[legend]], the attribution of [[healing]] qualities to the water through the [[numen|numinous]] presence of its guardian spirit or of a [[Christian saint]], or a ceremony or [[ritual]] centered on the well site. [[Christian legend]]s often recount how the action of a saint caused a spring's water to flow - a familiar theme, especially in the [[hagiography]] of [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic]] saints.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

===Thermal springs===
[[File:The Mother Spring - Pagosa Hot Springs, Colorado.jpg|thumb|''The Mother Spring'', Pagosa Hot Springs, Colorado]]
{{main|Hot spring}}

The geothermally heated groundwater that flows from thermal springs is greater than human body temperature, usually in the range of {{convert|45|–|50|C|F}}, but they can be hotter.<ref name="Dictionary of Hydrogeology" /> Those springs with water cooler than body temperature but warmer than air temperature are sometimes referred to as warm springs.<ref name="Canadian Journal of ES">{{cite journal |last1=Pentecost |first1=Allan |last2=Jones |first2=B. |last3=Renault |first3=R.W. |title=What is a hot spring? |journal=Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences |date=2003 |volume=40 |issue=11 |pages=1443–1446 |doi=10.1139/e03-083 |bibcode=2003CaJES..40.1443P |url=https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/e03-083 |access-date=15 November 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

====Bathing and balneotherapy====
Hot springs or geothermal springs have been used for [[balneotherapy]], bathing, and relaxation for thousands of years. Because of the folklore surrounding hot springs and their claimed medical value, some have become tourist destinations and locations of [[Physical therapy|physical rehabilitation]] centers.<ref name="ARD">{{cite journal |last1=van Tubergen |first1=A |title=A brief history of spa therapy |journal=Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases |date=1 March 2002 |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=273–275 |doi=10.1136/ard.61.3.273|pmid=11830439 |pmc=1754027 }}</ref><ref name="DOE">{{cite web |title=A History of Geothermal Energy in America |url=https://www.energy.gov/eere/geothermal/history-geothermal-energy-america |publisher=U.S. Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy |access-date=30 October 2020}}</ref>
[[File:Spring flowing through grass.jpg|thumb|Natural spring in Pennsylvania where runoff flows from above down through grass and rocks]]

====Geothermal energy====
Hot springs have been used as a heat source for thousands of years. In the 20th century, they became a renewable resource of geothermal energy for heating homes and buildings.<ref name="ARD" /> The city of [[Beppu|Beppu, Japan]] contains 2,217 hot spring well heads that provide the city with hot water.<ref name="CSM">{{cite news |last1=Holtz |first1=Michael |title=Japan builds a head of steam for an alternative to nuclear |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2018/0309/Japan-builds-a-head-of-steam-for-an-alternative-to-nuclear |access-date=17 November 2021 |publisher=Christian Science Monitor |date=9 March 2018}}</ref> Hot springs have also been used as a source of sustainable energy for greenhouse cultivation and the growing of crops and flowers.<ref name="sustain energy">{{cite web |title=Case Studies in Hot Spring Use for Sustainable Energy |url=https://www.pref.oita.jp/uploaded/attachment/2049215.pdf |publisher=Oita Prefectural Government |access-date=17 November 2021}}</ref>