New Orleans city water is pretty OK, certainly much better than it used to be. It comes from the ass-end of the Mississippi/Missouri/Ohio River system, North America's greatest naturally-occurring sewer, so the local treatment plants have their work cut out for them. There have been several periodic upgrades of our water-treatment technology in recent years; they seem to try and keep up with the state of the art

I remember the short-lived proposal to bottle our tap water, but I don't remember anyone suggesting the brand-name "Liquid Jazz," which does suggest a fairly disgusting subtext. (For that matter, I don't remember any specific name suggestion.) Recent testing by the EPA (or perhaps some other authority) had just given New Orleans city water an excellent grade, at a time when general public opinion still regarded it as dangerously nasty. The water had been pretty bad in the recent past, the quality very much needed improvement, but when the improvements had been achieved, little public recognition was forthcoming.

The proposal to bottle and sell our tap water was really nothing more than a PR trick to direct attendtion to its significantly improved quality, and it worked quite well for that purpose. I don't believe there was ever any serious intent to actually set up a bottling plant.