united states introduced 1845 tagline born better website http www.polandspring.com poland spring is a brand of bottled water manufactured in poland in the u.s. state of maine . it is a subsidiary of nestl and sold in the united states . 1 the spring was founded in 1845 by hiram ricker in the town of alfred maine . today the water is derived from multiple sources in the state of maine including poland spring and garden spring in poland maine clear spring in hollis evergreen spring in fryeburg spruce spring in pierce pond township white cedar spring in dallas plantation and bradbury spring in kingfield . recently when the poland spring brand has adopted a bottle using 30 % less plastic as did the other nestl waters north america brands . 2 poland spring was around 2006 the top selling spring water brand in america . 1 contents 1 origin 2 water sales 3 controversies 4 references origin edit a large pile of half pint poland spring bottles the spring has its origins in the late 18th century . in 1797 the wentworth ricker inn opened at the homestead jabez ricker . in 1844 jabez s grandson hiram ricker claimed that spring water from the property cured him of chronic dyspepsia . in 1861 the inn was enlarged and renamed the mansion house . the inn had grown to a resort and his discussions with guests led them to also praise the drinking water . in this period it was quite fashionable to take the waters for almost all illnesses causing an uptick in business . the rickers soon began bottling the water . expanded again into an extravagant resort that locals dubbed ricker s folly the inn was renamed the poland spring house and opened on july 4 1876 . the inn remained a significant resort into the early 20th century but the ricker family lost control of the company during the 1930s . a resort still operates on the site . 3 water sales edit in 1891 maine s bureau of industrial and labor statistics listed 81 existing mineral springs . twenty three were used for commercial bottling with total sales of 400 000 . clarification needed 200 000 clarification needed of these sales were by poland spring . today poland spring sells the majority of its water in portable 8 12 and 20 oz bottles ; 500 ml 700 ml 1 l and 1.5 l bottles and also larger 5 gallon bottles usable in office or in home water dispensers . smaller 3 l 1 gallon and 2.5 gallon bottles are also available for sale in most supermarkets and for home delivery in the northeastern united states . other varieties of poland spring include sparkling lemon lime and distilled . they are also the producers of the aquapod line of products . all poland spring products are sold in plastic bottles for both safety and economic reasons . 4 today no portable poland spring bottles are made from the number 7 polycarbonate plastic that contains bisphenol a bpa . 4 the large 5 gallon bottles are made of number 1 plastic and are also bpa free while the 3 gallon bottles are made of number 7 plastic and may contain trace levels of bpa . 5 bottles made of pete which do not contain bpa number 1 or 2 or 4 on bottom started to appear in 2013 ; in some areas one may have only these bottles . they can be recognized by the different handle design separate piece of plastic rather than a continuous molded element . in the summer of 2005 poland spring changed the color of its 1 gallon bottle cap from dark green to clear . the reason for the color change was to remove the dye from the cap which is more suitable for the recycling stream . poland spring later changed to a lighter bottle called the eco shape which uses 30 percent less plastic . 2 the new style made its d but in november 2007 . 6 the bottles shape is designed to save plastic and be eco friendly . controversies edit several towns in maine have objected to the business practices of poland spring and its parent company nestl . in some towns such as fryeburg maine poland spring actually buys the water 110 million gallons of water from fryeburg a year from another company the fryeburg water co. and ships it to the poland spring bottling plant in poland spring . 7 however fryeburg water co. also sells water to the town of fryeburg . the town of fryeburg began to question the amount of water the company was selling to poland spring . in 2004 the town s water stopped temporarily because of a pump failure but poland spring s operations were able to continue . 1 the group h2o for me wants to create a tax on water drawn for commercial purposes . however poland spring said the tax would force the company into bankruptcy . 8 state legislator jim wilfong proposed a 20 cent per gallon tax be allowed to be voted on in a referendum but the measure was defeated . he also believed that laws should be rearranged to place limits on the amount of groundwater landowners can pump out of their land . 1 the town of sterling massachusetts is attempting to prevent poland spring nestl from pumping spring water from conservation restricted town land . nestl waters north america nwna has responded to an rfp issued by the town of clinton to purchase the town of clinton s wekepeke aquifer water rights located in sterling . 9 in june 2003 poland spring was sued for false advertising in a class action lawsuit charging that their water that supposedly comes from springs is in fact heavily treated common ground water . 10 the suit also states hydro geologists hired by nestl found that another current source for poland spring water near the original site stands over a former trash and refuse dump and below an illegal disposal site where human sewage was sprayed as fertilizer for many years . 10 the suit was settled in september 2003 with the company not admitting to the allegations but agreeing to pay 10 million in charity donations and discounts over the next 5 years . 11 nestl continues to sell the same maine water under the poland spring name . references edit a b c d source of trouble the economist october 26 2006 english a b poland spring r lightens up with new eco shape tm bottle . bevnet . 2007 11 02 . retrieved 2008 05 16 . maine league of historical societies and museums 1970 . doris a. isaacson ed . maine a guide down east . rockland me courier gazette inc. p. 398 . a b safety and storage page from poland spring website . retrieved 2011 01 01 . poland springs water faq . coultas carol . poland spring eyeing debate . archived from the original on 2007 07 13 . retrieved 2007 07 23 . turkel tux . water deal too sweet . retrieved 2007 07 23 . group plans water extraction tax asks state support . retrieved 2007 07 23 . water fight already rages over wekepeke . retrieved 2008 03 19 . a b nestl sued for falsely advertising poland spring water . water & wastes digest . 2003 06 19 . retrieved 2008 05 16 . anthony brooks 2003 09 04 . poland spring settles class action lawsuit . morning edition . national public radio . retrieved 2008 07 10 . v t e nestl brands appliances babynes dolce gusto nescaf alegria nescaf barista 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milk substitutes nescaf basement 1 currently manufactured by general mills in the united states and canada . produced by cereal partners under the nestl brand elsewhere . 2 brand owned by general mills ; us and canadian production rights controlled by nestl under license . 3 us production rights owned by the hershey company . 4 canadian production rights owned by the hershey company . 5 us rights and production owned by smarties candy company with a different product . 6 us rights and specific trade dress