[2] Ice Mountain sources its water from two groundwater wells at Sanctuary Spring in Mecosta County, Michigan, and/or Evart Spring in Evart, Michigan.

[3][6] In 2004, a Michigan court ordered the pumping of Sanctuary springs to cease.

After an appellate court overturned the cease and desist order, the company, and local groups agreed to pump only 218 US gallons (830 L; 182 imp gal) per minute, which is comparable to other local beverage operations.

[7] Nestlé (which owned Ice Mountain at the time) ran into similar local opposition when trying to locate a new source location near the headwaters of the White River in the upper lower peninsula of Michigan.

[8] In 2017, Nestle applied for permits to increase production to 400 gallons (US) per minute.