WIGGINS, Miss. (WLOX) - The Coast Life for a family in Wiggins is centered around water and giving you a chance to drink from a fresh spring flowing right here in South Mississippi.
“Inda Bay Spring Water is a natural spring water that has been quenching the thirst of local inhabitants for thousands of years,” Tracey Batson said. “Collectively, 3,800 gallons a minute flow and seep out of this hillside. It flows into Red Creek, Pascagoula, and then the Gulf.”
Just about a year ago, Tracey Batson and her husband Shep Batson started packaging the spring water.
“It is as pure as you can get if you’ll just taste it and try it,” Batson said. “We do nothing to it, God made it that way, we just put it in a bottle. Our motto is let our legacy douse your thirst.”
Shep Batson’s ancestors first found the spring in the early 1800’s, settled the land around it, and called it Inda Bay. Eight generations later, the family still lives on the property a few miles outside of Wiggins.
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Now, the bottling facility worked by Shep, Tracey, and two other employees is turning a decades-old dream into a reality. They plan to package 2.5 million bottles of water this year.
“It is completely untouched by man, it never even hits air, it comes out of the ground, into our facility, into the bottle, and is sealed,” Batson said. “We do nothing to it, it runs through several filters, it is protected against bacteria that’s required by the state, and that is it.”
The Batsons stack their water up against all others.
“To give you an idea, the premium water you have access to has 10 to 15 times more impurities than Inda Bay’s,” Batson said.
The water is poured and packaged into recyclable bottles also made in the Stone County facility.
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Along with selling the water in local stores, the Batsons partner with businesses and offer unique packaging labels like the ones you can find in the Island View Casino.
What they sell is an essential product and they plan on doing whatever they can to take Inda Bay Water from Wiggins to around the globe.
“The access to natural spring water is a fad that’s not going to go out of style, it’s going to become more and more precious. It’s just one of those that you have to try, and once you try it you will understand that it is a very clear, pure, and delicious water.”
You can find the water in stores around the area, including at Rouse’s. According to Batson, the water is distributed by Mitchell Distributing and can be available wherever Anheuser-Busch products are sold in South Mississippi.
If you don’t see it where you shop, you can ask about it. For more information, you can visit their website.
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