Want to know where your water comes from?

For one U.S. brand, what's in the bottle is ordinary tap water and labels may indicate "Public Water Source" as the origin. Currently, the tag line reads "Pure water pure taste" under an image of a mountain, and the web site indicates that their proprietary filtering system purifies the water several ways. The source of the water is not named. Aquafina®, owned by PepsiCo Inc., has announced it is considering the change on its labels but no starting date has been announced. It admits that Aquafina's water is purified from public reservoirs - as are many brands labeled as "purified waters."

The proposed label change comes not from federal regulation but from pressure mounted by a campaign by Corporate Accountability International, a consumer advocate group that "challenges irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world." Its Think Outside the Bottle campaign pushes major water bottlers to end what it calls misleading practices.

What's really in that bottled water?

The FDA, which does regulates bottled waters, requires that when a community water system source is used, the label must include "from a community water system" or "from a municipal source."

If the water is distilled, deionized or uses reverse osmosis it can be called "purified water…" but it does not have to state on its label that it is "from a community water system" or "from a municipal source."

The FDA reports that only 25 percent of bottled water comes from municipal sources. The remaining 75 percent of bottled water sold in the U.S. comes from natural underground sources, which include rivers, lakes, springs and artesian wells.

Coca-Cola Co's brand, Dasani, following cautiously in Aquafina's steps, has not announced any label changes but will post information about upcoming water testing online by the end of the summer.

Among the many bottled waters from natural sources are Calistoga and Arrowhead® of California or Poland Spring® of Maine which are bottled from springs in the U.S. and Volvic and Evian which come from springs in France. Bottled spring waters, waters from glaciers and other resources from New Zealand to Iceland and throughout eastern and western Europe are being sold in the U.S. for their actual and perceived purity compared to municipal water sources which vary considerably from state to state.

What About The Bottle Itself?

Critics of the bottled water industry have expressed concern, not for what's inside the bottle, but for the bottle itself. With the segue from glass to plastic, they believe plastic bottles add countless tons of non-disposable waste to pubic landfills, use too much energy to be produced and/or to be shipped, often around the world, and imply a lack of safety and cleanliness of public water.

While various U.S. municipality water sources can range from very hard to very soft, cleanliness is rarely an issue and access is available to all. That Americans should have easy access to clean municipal water sources yet spend $15 billion for 2.6 billion cases bottled water yearly is considered a great irony when more than one-third of the world's population has no access to clean water at all.

While sales of bottled waters remain high, some cities are taking a stronger stance: San Francisco city employees are banned from buying bottled water when tap water is available; Ann Arbor has banned commercially bottled water at city events, and Salt Lake City has asked its department heads to eliminate bottled water.