Quote Originally Posted by translations.nm.ru
Quote Originally Posted by laxxy
yup. "gazirovka" for me is just plain or maybe mineral water.
Type in "газировка" in Yandex and see how many quality quotes will pop up where this word means sweet soda.

By quality results I mean quotes from books/reputable media as opposed to posts in web forums etc, where people often use words incorrectly. And mineral water is one thing that "газировка" just can't mean, imho
I am not pretending to set the standards for the language everywhere, or anywhere. I can just vouch for myself that I have never heard this word being used in that context, and would not use it myself for that purpose either.
So at the very least, it is not a generally accepted term.

and yes, "pop" is midwestern.