Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle over America’s Drinking Water by Elizabeth Royte

Royte looks at water by pulling apart the story behind it rather than the taste. She starts with source claims and checks whether they hold up, often finding ordinary municipal water disguised as something else. From there she shifts to ownership and scale, how a handful of large companies control supply and influence what people assume they are buying. She digs into the regulatory landscape and finds gaps between perception and reality, especially when compared with the stricter oversight applied to tap water. Yes, municipal water is regulated more than bottled water. Environmental cost runs through the whole analysis, including aquifer strain, plastic waste, the implact on communities, and the energy required to bottle and ship. Her approach compares bottled and municipal water on a variety of factors.