10th Annual Water Taste Test
Congratulations to our 2011 winner, Chilton Water Authority! From left to right: William Hayes, Operator; Diane Little, Office Manager; Doug Bice, General Manager all with Chilton Water Authority and Kathy Horne, Executive Director, Alabama Rural Water Association |
2011 Runner Up |
Best Tasting Water in Alabama!
By: George Marodis, USDA Source Water Protection Specialist
One of the most exciting events at the Conference is the Water Taste Test. Water utilities from the entire State of Alabama are invited to submit samples of their water for the competition.
Utilities from throughout the State entered the competition meeting preliminary qualifications of having no chemical or monitoring violations.
Judging Criteria:
A panel of judges was selected to choose the winners. Judges will consider:
- Taste
- Clarity
- Odor
The Judges for the competition
were Jason T. Wilson and Whit Slagle
with the ADEM and Steve Feaga with
the Montgomery County District
Attorney's Office.
After the preliminary judging the water system entries were reduced to the following six finalists:
- Chilton Water Authority
- Leeds Water Works Board
- Lowndes County Water Authority
- Mobile County Water, Sewer & FPA
- Town of Lowndesboro Water Works System
- West Etowah County Water Authority
The final judging continued during the Rural Water
Country Luncheon where over 600 attendees gathered to
await the judge's selection. When the last taste test sample was
judged and the ratings were calculated, there was a tie, after
an additional round of sampling, the 2011 Water Taste Test
Winner was announced.
The winner was the Chilton Water Authority located
in Chilton County, Alabama. The System serves over 8,700
people, and has seven wells. The Chilton Water Authority has
ten storage tanks that provide and distribute water throughout
their 900 miles of main line pipe. Having the best tasting
drinking water in Alabama is the result of hard work and
proper management, and that's exactly what you will find at
the Chilton Water Authority. This hard work and dedication
is evident through the quality of their drinking water having
won the Taste Test in 2010 as well. It is highly unusual for a
drinking water sample to be selected two years consecutively,
so we know the folks at Chilton Water Authority are doing
something right!
By winning the "Taste Test" at the ARWA Conference, a
representative from the Chilton County Water Authority will
receive a round trip ticket to Washington, D.C. to compete in
the National Drinking Water Contest scheduled to take place
in February, 2012.
The runner up in the "Taste Test" competition was the
Leeds Water Works Board located in Leeds, Alabama, Jefferson
County. Leeds Water Works Board is no stranger to
the "Runner Up" category. Throughout the history of Taste
Test contests we have seen them selected before demonstrating
their good quality drinking water. Leeds supplies drinking
water to approximately 20,000 people. Leeds utilizes four
ground water wells and two springs as source sites and has
enough storage capacity to hold 3,740,000 gallons of water. If
a representative of the taste test winner cannot make the trip
to Washington, D.C., then a representative from the runner
up utility will be given the opportunity to participate at the
national level. Congratulations to the Leeds Water Works
Board!
Read the Waterline article with more pictures! (pdf)
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