Bottled water looks so refreshing–-labels show mountains covered in snow or a rush of spring water down a tree-lined gulley. Look behind the pictures and the names and you’ll find that most bottled water comes from municipal water supplies!

The average American drinks more than 24 gallons of bottled water each year-–more than milk, coffee or beer. Only soda is more popular, but bottled water is catching up. Many people are wary of tap water, so they buy bottled water believing it’s more natural, purer, more healthful and better tasting. But the facts usually prove to be quite different.

It’s not a negative that many bottled waters come from municipal water supplies --except that consumers may not realize they’re spending money on bottled tap water. Tap water is strictly regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Bottled water is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only if it is shipped across state lines or is imported. Most bottled water is packaged and sold within one state, so it’s subject only to state regulation, which varies greatly--and in some states is nonexistent. Most bottlers belong to the International Bottled Water Association, a trade group that has its own rules and guidelines.

Several studies have found that while most bottled water is of high quality, some is not in inline with the strict standards for tap water. For example, a study comparing bottled waters with tap water from Cleveland found that one-quarter of the bottled waters had significantly higher bacterial counts than tap water. This doesn’t mean that the bottled waters contained enough bacteria to cause illness, but enough to cause a concern.

In blind taste tests, most people can’t tell the difference between bottled and tap. Even when bottled water is not tap water, the rules are loose enough that "spring" water may actually come from wells or
aquifers. Some bottled waters do come from mountain springs or glacial sources, but it's rare.

Only "mineral water" has extra nutrients, and even these minerals don’t add up to much. Tap water does usually have one important nutrient seldom found in the bottles– fluoride. Bottlers generally filter out the fluoride from municipal water.

If you care about conservation of resources, tap water is by far the better choice. More than a million tons of plastic is used every year to make water bottles. It takes lots of energy to make, ship and cool bottles--and that energy production creates air pollution. Most of the plastic, which is not biodegradable, ends up clogging landfills.

Questions about your drinking water or water filters?

Contact EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline:  1-800-426-4791