Dudes, I'm here to tell you that if your living in an approved public drinking water area, your water is tested, tested and tested some more by law under the Safe Drinking Water Act. If any of those test parameters fail, they legally have to notify you, the consumer. Keeping drinking water within regulatory limits is very hard to achieve and municipalities spend literally millions of dollars trying to stay in compliance. This whole bottled water thing is just simply amazing to me. Just look back 15 years ago...bottled water???? What the hell?
In the labs I've worked at in the past, we have done taste tests akin to what boo-boo is eluding to, 90% of the consumers can't even tell the difference. All you need is great media production, and that introduces hysteria into the masses. Result: A umpteen ka-billion dollar industry. Funny, you ever looked at the labels and see exactly who owns which water company? Pepsi and Coke have a lot of them, same water they use for making their soft drinks. If the water taste good, USE IT and save your money for brewing supplies.