Rising water level: although its meteoric rise has slowed a step, bottled water continues to...

In late 2003, bottled water manufacturers could be heard bellowing the enthusiastic chant, "We're No. 2! We're No. 2!" Last year, bottled water officially surpassed beer, after blowing past coffee and milk in years past, to take sole ownership of the country's No. 2 beverage slot on a volume basis. It now trails only carbonated soft drinks.

In 2003, total category volume in all channels approached 6.4 billion gallons, a 7.5% increase over 2002's volume level, according to Beverage Marketing Corp. While 2003's growth was off pace compared to the previous year's growth o