The U.S. affair with bottled water is a national scandal

$11.8 billion worth of bottled water was sold in the U.S. in 2011, a figure that is projected to overtake the sale of carbonated drinks in a few years.  While health conscious buyers revel in the freedom and choice bottled water provides, little do they know that their consumption is not without a hefty cost to the environment.  Each plastic bottle of water uses the equivalent of 1/4th of its volume in crude oil to manufacture and transport according to "BeCause Water":  Why Bottled Water is the Scam of the Century

The packaging and marketing may suggest the beauty of the natural world, but the reality has severe ecological consequences. The BeCause Water movement for water sustainability states that almost 3 million tons of plastic are used to produce bottled water worldwide, and 80 percent of this ends up in landfills. The Pacific Ocean now has an area twice the size of Texas called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is made up of plastic deposits.

Most bottling companies use public water sources for their products, but through marketing campaigns mask this fact.  And consumers drink it up to the tune of $1,000 per year per average household, which is 2,000 times more expensive than tap water.
The bottom line is, if you're consuming bottled water you're under the illusion that it's safer than filtered tap water, you're contributing to multi-level environmental degradation, and doing so at a hefty cost to your wallet courtesy of the mighty American advertising.