Bottled Water Makes a Splash

COLUMBIA — Across the country, a controversy is raging over an element critical to life: water. Sprouting from environmental concerns about the resources used to make and transport bottled water, the mayors of San Francisco and Salt Lake City have banned the purchase of bottled water with city funds. And when school started this year at Nerinx Hall High School in St. Louis, students found vending machines without water; the Catholic school recently banned the bottled water, citing concern about the wastefulness of a product that comes out of the tap for a fraction of the cost.