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ECUA’s Water Selected As ‘Best Tasting’ In Region
April 5, 2013
ECUA’s drinking water was selected as the “2013 Best Tasting Water” winner in a taste-test competition held recently in Destin. The annual event was sponsored by Region IX of the Florida Section/American Water Works Association (FS/AWWA).
Region IX is comprised of all water utilities in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties.
The FS/AWWA is divided into 12 Regions, each hosting their own regional competition. Participation in the Best Tasting Drinking Water Contest is open only to water providers within the geographical region who have not experienced any violations in the federal or state safe drinking water regulatory requirements. Destin Water users hosted the event and provided a panel of impartial judges. Each water sample was evaluated for taste, odor, color, and clarity.
“ECUA water has been recognized as the best-tasting water in the Florida Panhandle for the fourth time in seven years. Our Water Department staff have done us all proud,” said ECUA Board Chairman Larry Walker.
As a four-time winner of the Region IX competition, ECUA will now compete against the other 11 FS/AWWA Regions’ winners in the state-wide competition later this month in Orlando at the Florida Water Resource Conference.
Pictured: One of ECUA’s 32 water wells located on Tate Road in Cantonment. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
4 Responses to “ECUA’s Water Selected As ‘Best Tasting’ In Region”
Any ECUA customer, especially, in District 5, with bad-tasting water is welcome to inform me of it, and I will have it looked into by ECUA staff. There are three reasons why water may either taste bad, look bad, or produce discoloration in a home filter. First, the home may be receiving water from a bad well. This is rare, because ECUA will stop using one of its 30-odd wells if either bad-tasting or bad-looking water is coming from it. There is one current example of this, the Davis Highway well, that is shut down because it produces water with an excessive level of iron or other color component. Almost all ECUA wells produce good water because test wells are drilled and the water evaluated before the final decision is made to drill a new production well.
There are two more common reasons for bad water in a home. First, the house may be on the end of a dead-end ECUA line; if so, there may be a build-up of bad-tasting elements in the water. When ECUA knows about such a situation, it puts a flush stand on the end of that line and periodically flushes the line in order to prevent the undesirable build-up. The other common cause of bad-tasting water is the water pipes that are part of the house. Old, old pipes may have a build-up of rust or other elements that affects the flavor of the water. This situation is the responsibility of the home owner, not of ECUA.
In my 20 years on the ECUA board, I have seen all three types of situations. If your ECUA water tastes bad, let me know, and I will have ECUA staff look into the matter. Larry Walker, ECUA Member, District 5
Congratulations ECUA. My water is very good, still do not like the fluoride, though.
Randy is right. ECUA water comes from multiple wells spread all over. They do NOT have the same quality on each well. Those in one area will have very different tasting water than others.
Just as an experiment try getting some from several friends spread across ECUA’s coverage area and taste test them. For that matter just look at the color. Some will be VERY different.
So this taste test means only that someone was VERY careful where they took the samples.
1. Would like to know more about the samples tested. Such as the location of the sample. The water that comes from my tap is horrible. If you want clean and pleasant tasting water, visit Northeastern Iowa…..