Bottled Water doesn’t always mean treated water. You’re not necessarily getting an enhanced product and the label doesn’t really tell you how it was treated. It’s estimated that one-fourth of all bottled water comes straight from the tap, according to the International Bottled Water Association (IBWA).

This discovery comes at a time when bottled water is the fastest growing beverage category in the United States. It is a $3.4 billion category, growing at an annual rate of nine percent.

The two governmental agencies responsible for monitoring water quality have different standards and testing procedures. EPA standards require municipal water districts to test for over 90 different contaminates in tap water. The FDA monitors the bottled water industry, which ironically has no higher standards than the EPA has for tap water. There is no guarantee that bottled water is better than ordinary tap water.