Lead is actually one of the easier things to remove from water. Any filter should do that easily. Same with Chlorine.

Carbon based filters can remove some, but not all, of those things and do nothing to remove bacteria or fluoride. In fact, unless great care is taken with the filters themselves, they can actually become breeding grounds for bacteria increasing the bacteria levels of the water to unsafe levels.
Boiling the water can take care of the bacteria problem but can actually concentrate levels of lead and chlorine.

Coke makes/bottles Dasani (they add minerals n crap to it hence, makes)
Aquafina is bottled by Pepsi

Not sure if either is spring water or tap water. And I don't mind reverse osmosis bottled tap water....

Nancy, thanks for the info on plastics leaching things into the water...like I said I am none too thrilled about using the plastic containers to hold the water. I cringe when I get a gallon jug of water that actually tastes like plastic!!! I take it back and get a refund or another!

Playdoh, this was back in the 80's I believe. Made international news.

I generally drink tap water, but only because it's cheaper. Although I frequently buy bottled water, I do not feel any guilt over it.

If you are concerned about the leaching of chemicals in plastic bottles look for bottles made of Nalgene which is reported to not have that problem. See here for more details.
I've seen these at several stores as well as my local health food store.

Boilding water would remove the chlorine, did you mean fluoride?

Nalgene can also have problems. No matter what you do, someone will find a problem with doing it.

I used to drink bottled water to get my water in, because I liked the taste better, but now that I live here, the tap water is fantastic and I almost never buy bottle water unless it's flavored and that's not even once a week.

You're right. I was thinking of Chloramines, not Chlorine.

I have been a water drinker for over 20 years. When I first started - at the urging of a friend who convinced me of the benefits- I lived in a town with really gross water. When you made ice cubes and put them in a glass of water, stuff would flake off. I would not drink the water unless it was really cold, so I could not taste it as much.

Where I live now, the water comes from the lake, but we have many boats and especially house boats who used to dump effluent into the lake. I would never dream of drinking unfiltered water from this town.

I do buy water bottles, but only when I need one. I just happen to like the style of the Aquafina bottles. They have a wider mouth, and are easier to drink from. I used to use rubbermaid bottles, but if you accidently left it lying around with the flip up spout up, it would leak everywhere. I have not been able to find a bottle that is like the aquafina ones. I actually have a 1.5 litre aquafina bottle that is 2 years old. I just put a spoonful of bleach in my dishwashing water, and rinse really well, and leave upside down to dry.

My biggest problem with buying bottled water is that if everyone keeps doing it, eventually we will all have to pay for all the water we drink regardless of where it comes from. And regardless of the quality. The govenment will start regulating it in some way to make money. This may sound paranoid, but.....

We've bought this the whole thing, and even had a bottled water delivery for more than 2 years. We had Calistoga in a large 5 gallon bottles. At the beginning it was fine, but then the taste changed, and it smelled stail. So I contacted the company,and they told me that many customers were complaining since they changed the "source" of water. I've cancelled the delivery and we bought a good RO filter and now use tap water for drinking and cooking, which taste very good to me. The filter has indicator when it is time to changes it, and I can tell it removes chlorine pretty good. But I grew up drinking water from the tap before coming here, and never complained about the taste, so it's all just a habit.
When we first came to SF, I thought I never tried such a sweet tasting tap water, but after switching to bottled, I can still taste the chorine and would rather drink it filtrated at home or bottled RO Alhambra at work. But I do agree that we don't know is all bottled water even purified (unless it states on the bottle) and where it is coming from. As for fluoride, I never had cavities even fluoride was not added to our water system when I was a kid, I think it was more the fact that I never had a sweet tooth, and did not eat refined sugars. But the most important, it does impact thyroid function.
As for the best tasting bottled water, I am guilty and love Evian, even I am not sure how pure it is and what is the source. We also drink lots of mineral sparling water like St.Pelegrino, DH loves it with a sqeeze if lemon. I like the fact that mineral water comes in glass bottles not plastic, so it keeps better and does not have this stail taste.

The water here is but I agree about plastic not being good for us and pollution issues. R.O. works well and we change the filters more often than necessary.

Hmmm...

I even remember reading on a nutritionalists site that RO was bad because it does something on the molecular level that removes many beneficial things from the water...

So I guess it shows to go ya, someone will have a beef with anything we do....

I think the rap on RO is quackery. They are right in that it doesn't contain minerals. That's one reason I just use a simple filter versus RO. I want to get minerals. How do you know you're not drinking RO water from the bottles you buy?

I have a carbon-based filter in the fridge. I thought it is supposed to remove bacteria, too. Cab you direct me to some websites that discuss this? I'm a little paranoid now because sometimes I forget to order new filters in time and keep using the old ones past its "expiration".