Among the carbon-footprint conscious, mineral water from the French Alps and artesian-spring water from the Fiji Islands is now declasse. The eat-local set wants us to drink local, too, primarily tap water in reusable Nalgene bottles. In response, the bottled water industry argues that its product is being unfairly singled out as wasteful, even though other bottled beverages incur carbon-footprint costs as well.

Haven't heard this debate in the Triangle yet? It's coming our way, slowly.

While our recent prolonged dry spell prompted an outcry against Pepsi Bottling Ventures of Garner, which processes water from Raleigh's municipal system and sells it as Aquafina, the national trend against bottled water hasn't gained powerful traction here. "Last summer, there was a movement to only do bottled water because of the drought," says Charlie Deal, chef-owner of Jujube restaurant in Chapel Hill. "Maybe we're not ready to do the exact opposite of what we were being told last year."

However, at least one Triangle restaurant has installed a water filtration system and limited its bottled water offering to the sparkling kind. A national anti-bottled water campaign has recruited an organizer at UNC-Chapel Hill. And to mark Earth Day on Tuesday, dining facilities at Duke University and Cisco Systems will begin selling only North American bottled water.

Elsewhere across the nation, the move against bottled water is gaining steam. Slow food matriarch Alice Waters no longer offers bottled water at her trendsetting restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif. Celebrity chef Mario Batali followed suit at his restaurant Del Posto, one of the first restaurants to do so in New York City. Other upscale restaurants from Boston to Chicago have done the same.

Restaurants aren't the only ones jumping on the bottled water ban-wagon. Environmentally conscious mayors have stopped ordering bottled water for their employees in city halls from San Francisco to St. Louis. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson called bottled water "the greatest marketing scam of all time." Since January, Chicagoans have been paying a 5-cent tax on each container of bottled water, thanks to the mayor and city council.

At what price plastic

Americans drink more bottled water than any other beverage, about 8.8 million gallons per year, or more than 29 gallons each, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp. That consumption almost doubled from 2000 to 2007.

Environmental groups worry about the effect of that consumption: 10 billion discarded plastic bottles in landfills annually, according to the Sierra Club; and 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide and the equivalent of 17 million barrels of petroleum to produce the plastic bottles annually, according a 2006 estimate by environmental think tank The Pacific Institute.

Beyond the environmental effects, bottled water companies have come under fire recently for revelations that 25 percent of bottled water comes from municipal water systems. Pepsi Co.'s Aquafina and Coca-Cola's Dasani are two examples of bottled tap water. Bottlers process the municipal water to further remove trace contaminants, mostly byproducts of the disinfection process. From a tap, water costs consumers 2 cents a gallon, but bottled water can cost between $1 and $8.42 a gallon, according to The Sierra Club.

"Bottled water is bad for taxpayers, bad for public water systems and bad for the environment," says Deborah Lapidus, a national organizer with the "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign being run by Corporate Accountability International. The advocacy group has been recruiting city officials, business leaders and students to its cause.

Lapidus argues that the bottled water industry promotes its product as better than tap water, in the process creating a $15 billion market for bottled water in the United States, by casting doubt on public water systems. She worries that such marketing will undermine support for public water systems, which are already underfunded.

The International Bottled Water Association disagrees with the CAI's campaign, saying it confuses consumers by painting the issue as a bottled water vs. tap water debate. The industry is trying to reduce its environmental impact by using lighter-weight plastics and using more fuel-efficient means to transport its products.

"Rather than focusing on one beverage choice, it would make more sense for consumers and government officials to focus on improving curb side recycling rates for all consumer packaging. IBWA strongly encourages container recycling and encourages officials to provide citizens with easy and efficient opportunities to help ensure that they are properly recycled," according to a statement.

What are the alternatives?

To most Triangle residents, bottled water seemed benign during the recent dry months, as we counted down the days left of our water supply. Restaurants across the region were asked not to automatically serve water to customers but rather to make customers ask for it. Restaurateurs proudly began serving bottled water. Durham's Watts Grocery served bottled water at cost, 20 cents per bottle. Chapel Hill's Bonne Soiree served Crystal Geyser bottled water to customers free of charge and used the bottled spring water to make its coffee.

Locally, there are some stirrings of a movement away from bottled water.

"Think Outside the Bottle" has recruited a campaign organizer at UNC-Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill chef Bret Jennings has installed a water filtration system at his restaurant, Elaine's on Franklin. He stopped serving bottled still water but serves Italian sparkling water. His reasons: "less recycling, less waste in landfills, all those good things."

Other restaurants would like to follow suit. "We're thinking about putting in a water filtration system, if we do that, we'd eliminate all bottled water," says Doug Snyder, the general manager at The Mint in Raleigh.

Bon Appetit, the food service management company that operates at Duke University and Cisco Systems, has announced some long-term carbon footprint reduction goals timed to next week's Earth Day. They range from reducing meats, cheese and food waste to find North American sources for all fresh vegetables and nontropical fruits.

As of this month, Bon Appetit will sell bottled water only from North America, which at Duke means no more Fiji, San Pellegrino or Perrier. Instead, Michael Aquaro, Bon Appetit's resident district manager at Duke, says the company plans to offer homemade waters flavored with sassafras, mint and maybe mango.

But Bon Appetit's efforts illustrate that the issue is not as clear cut as tap water is good and bottled water is bad. The company is reluctant to completely eliminate bottled water because it may make consumers opt for other products, which have a larger carbon footprint, such as juice or soda. Most American orange juice, for example, is made from oranges grown in Florida, then processed in Brazil and shipped back to the United States, according to Haven Bourque, a representative for Bon Appetit, on the company's low carbon diet initiative.

Aquaro adds: "If we eliminate bottled water entirely, we run the risk of forcing guests to other options that may not be better."