Given our desert climate –- especially in the summer –- it’s imperative that you stay hydrated. Heat stroke, sunstroke, and dehydration are real, prevalent, and preventable dangers, even to residents. If you're on the Strip, where the proliferation of concrete, glass, and asphalt can act like a convection oven, it's even more important to replace the water and electrolytes that our climate (and cocktails) can wring out of you.
As to the first part of your question, it really depends on the brand. Aquafina (a Pepsi brand) and Dasani (Coca-Cola), for instance, have been criticized for being "essentially filtered tap water." (This, along with revelations of potentially harmful levels of bromate, led to the recall of 500,000 bottles and the permanent removal of the Dasani brand from the U.K. in 2004.) Other brands, like Fiji, require long distribution routes and considerable expenditures of fuel to reach our stores. What’s more, the proliferation of empty plastic bottles in recycling bins and landfills is starting to become a hot-button issue.
As for Las Vegas’ tap water, the Las Vegas Valley Water District has found high levels of magnesium and calcium, courtesy of the "mineral-dense Colorado River," but these "do not pose a health risk." However, at 275 parts per million, it’s enough to earn Las Vegas’ water classification as "very hard." (It tastes bad, too.)
For a visitor, that’s probably not an ongoing concern.
However, since Las Vegas is known to its residents as "the kidney stone capital of the world," a thriving business has sprung up, not only among the bottlers and suppliers of brands like Arrowhead. Go to virtually any major grocery store and the chances are you'll see machines that dispense distilled or filtered water by the gallon. Since the dispensation is literally a BYOB affair, this cuts down on the amount of one-use water bottles cluttering up the landscape. It’s also quite cheap, often less than 25 cents a gallon. For those with wheels, curbside BYOB water fountains are also available courtesy of Watermill Express, with the nearest locations to the Strip at Decatur and Twain, Desert Inn and Wynn, and Tropicana and Rainbow, Bonanza and Stuart for the downtown area. The company estimates it's saved more than 500,000,000 one-gallon disposable water bottles from being discarded into the country’s landfills since it was founded in 1984.
So, you’ll want to keep hydrated while you’re in town. But instead of dropping a buck on a 20-ounce bottle of glorified tap water, forget the Strip and find a strip mall with a dispensary. Besides, if your gallon of water only costs you a quarter, you won’t feel so gypped for not being able to take it on the plane.
