Unfiltered fervour: The rush to get off the water grid

San Francisco

AT Rainbow Grocery, a cooperative in this city's Mission District, one brand of water is so popular that it's often out of stock. But one recent evening, there was a glittering rack of it: glass orbs containing 2.5 gallons of what is billed as "raw water" - unfiltered, untreated, unsterilised spring water, US$36.99 each and US$14.99 per refill, bottled and marketed by a small company called Live Water.

"It has a vaguely mild sweetness, a nice smooth mouth feel, nothing that overwhelms the flavour profile," said Kevin Freeman, a shift manager at the store. "Bottled water's controversial. We've curtailed our water selection. But this is totally outside that whole realm." Here on the West Coast and in other pockets around the country, many people are looking to get off the water grid.