Do bottled water and tap water differ in terms of safety and quality regulations?
The FDA regulates bottled water as a food product and the EPA regulates the quality of public water supplies (tap water) as a utility. To ensure that bottled water is regulated in a manner similar to tap water, the FDA must review all new regulations for tap water to determine if they are applicable to bottled water. If the regulations are applicable, FDA must propose comparable regulations for bottled water within a specified period of time.
Source: http://www.bottledwater.org/public/BWFactsRegHome.htm