The move also shows donors how serious the family is about continuing their mission, and possibly expanding the youth program to other areas, such as Chicago.

This school year, nearly 9,000 Texas students are enrolled in the program, including Navasota, Bryan and College Station students.

“We’re setting up a legacy, not for our family, but for the foundation,” Gena Norris said. “We’re going to be able to give back long after we’re gone. It’s very important to us, because children matter.”

The Norrises hired hydrogeologist Len Sinfield, a certified geologist in California and Texas. He assessed the qualities of the water as well as the size and properties of the deposit.

By carbon-dating samples, Sinfield determined it was more than 23,000 years old. The water didn’t have traces of common, modern compounds such as CFCs in it, he said.

“It’s harder and harder to find water that old,” Sinfield said. “It’s good to see it bottled. ... It’s conserving the resource.”

The volume and depth of the water is proprietary information, but Sinfield said it’s enough to run the plant “for a very long time, past our lifetimes.”