Question:
Water seeps from the peak's glaciers, trickling through porous volcanic rock before finally bubbling up in one of the area's many springs, where some of it is snatched away and bottledis it true?

Answer: Nationally, the bottled water trend has led to questions about the environmental side effects of such operations and whether, in the end, bottled water is really any better than the stuff that flows from the tap.

"Our water is our gold," said Michelle Berditschevsky of the Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center. "Here it's just being basically given away to these large corporations that will eventually sell it back to the people.

"It seems like water and air and certain things like that ought to be basic rights of just living on the Earth."

The one thing everyone can agree on is that the bottled water shower has turned into a downright deluge. In 2001 Americans swallowed up more than 5 billion gallons of packaged water, or more than 18 gallons per person, according to the International Bottled Water Association.