North Kingstown tap water takes national honors

WASHINGTON – The Town of North Kingstown’s municipally-owned water system took third place yesterday in the 9th Annual Great American Water Taste Test, sponsored by the National Rural Water Association.

“We’ve actually won in the state a few times before … but we hadn’t progressed beyond that,” said Susan Licardi, director of the town Department of Water Supply.

This year’s competition drew more than 750 entries from 45 states, though only one winner from each state may progress to the national event. The Ocean State contest is conducted by the Atlantic States Rural Water & Wastewater Association, during a luncheon at its annual technical conference in Rhode Island. That contest has two divisions: disinfected and non-disinfected, Licard said. North Kingstown has chosen to compete in the disinfected division, winning statewide honors both last year and this year, she added, noting that “our system actually has three pressure zones, only one of which is disinfected.”

The national event is held each year in conjunction with the NRWA’s Annual Rural Water Rally in Washington, D.C. A half-gallon of water is provided by each competing water system, for judging based on clarity, bouquet and taste.

Five national finalists were selected Monday afternoon, at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, where the final judging took place during yesterday’s NRWA Luncheon. This year’s judges were Melanie Rhinehart-Van Tassell, legislative director to U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.; Teresa C. Lasseter, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency; and Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

First place and the 2008 title of America’s Best-Tasting Tap Water went to the Southampton Water Department, a well-water system in Massachusetts that has 1,251 connections. Second place went to Ohio’s Rural Lorain County Water Authority, a lake-water system with 20,000 connections. A representative of the Atlantic States Rural Water & Wastewater Association – Henry Meyer, the president of the ASRWWA’s board and superintendent of the Kingston Water District – accepted the third-place award on North Kingstown’s behalf.

The North Kingstown water department – established in 1939, after saltwater flooding in the previous year’s hurricane caused widespread water-quality problems – has 9,200 connections and a staff of 14, one part-time and 13 full-time. Its water “comes from ten gravel-packed groundwater wells,” the department says on its Web site. “On average, the town wells pump 3 million gallons of water per day (MGD) or one billion gallons per year. The peak summer demand can be as high as 8 MGD.”

The town’s performane was praised by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed. “Clean drinking water is a vital part of our daily lives,” he said, “and I’m proud that North Kingstown’s efforts have been recognized.”

For more information about the North Kingstown Department of Water Supply, visit www.northkingstown.org/waterdept.

The Atlantic States Rural Water & Wastewater Association, based in Norwich, Conn., is a private nonprofit organization representing water and wastewater systems across Rhode Island and Connecticut. Run by and for the rural systems, it provides training classes for system personnel and on-site technical assistance. To learn more, visit www.asrwwa.org.

The National Rural Water Association – describing itself as America’s largest utilities association – is a trade group whose membership includes more than 26,242 water and wastewater utilities in all 50 states. To learn more, visit visit www.nrwa.org.