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SALT LAKE CITY — The Central Utah Water Conservancy District recently won the American Water Works Association’s Best of Show award for the second year in a row, making it the “best-tasting water in Utah.”
The award for the best-tasting water in Utah included the west side of Utah County and the southern part of Salt Lake County, said Monica Hoyt, laboratory director of the CUWCD.
Counties covered by the CUWCD are Duchesne County, Sanpete County, Juab County, Salt Lake County, Summit County, Wasatch County, Uintah County and Utah County.
In order to compete in the AWWA’s Water Taste Test, districts must meet a certain set of water purity standards, according to the CUWCD.
At the water tasting, water from each district is placed in small plastic cups and labeled as such that the judges cannot tell where it is from. Sometimes there are up to 20 samples.
After the judges have tasted all the samples, there is a People’s Choice judging, in which anyone at the conference can participate.
“This water hasn’t seen the light of day in thousands of years. Mother Nature has filtered it and it is as beautiful and as pristine as it can get.” — Monica Hoyt, laboratory director at the CWCD
After both taste tests are complete, both sets of results are weighted together and the final winner is determined.
“Amazingly enough, there always seems to be one that kind of rises to the top,” Hoyt said.
Hoyt said the reason Utah and Salt Lake counties have the best-tasting water is because it comes from some of the deepest wells in the state of Utah.
“This water hasn’t seen the light of day in thousands of years,” she said. “Mother Nature has filtered it and it is as beautiful and as pristine as it can get.”
In June 2017, the district will compete against other local districts from every state in the nation at the AWWA’s Taste Test in Philadelphia. The CUWCD will represent Utah and southeastern Idaho at the conference.
