Ocoee Utility wins water taste contest

Allyson Hannah said she felt a little like she was at a wine tasting, what with the plates of crackers set out to cleanse the judges' palates between sips.

And she was a bit surprised when judges were told to look for the taste, clarity and bouquet of the samples. After all, it was just water.

"And I had never thought of bouquet when it came to water," Ms. Hannah, market leader and assistant vice president at First Volunteer Bank's Benton branch, said with a laugh. "But some of the water did have a chlorine smell."

Ms. Hannah was one of the Southeast Tennessee judges for the Tennessee Association of Utility Districts' water-tasting competition, a contest that chose the Ocoee Water Utility District as having the best-tasting water in the region.

"The Ocoee water had no aftertaste, and it didn't have a smell," Ms. Hannah said.

With the win under their belts, Ocoee officials hope to repeat what Etowah Water officials did last year -- win the statewide water taste test and go to Washington, D.C., to vie for a national honor.

"We feel really good about winning," utility Director Tim Lawson said about besting four other water companies last month in the regional contest held in Delano, Tenn.

"It gives you a little bragging rights," Mr. Lawson said. "People know our water is clean and safe, but now they know it's also good-tasting water, and there is a difference."

Mr. Lawson said if Ocoee wins at the Murfreesboro statewide competition in June, it could be the start of a trend for the area.

Last year, McMinn County's Etowah Utilities took the state title, and Ocoee hopes to keep the honor in the region. Etowah did not place in the Washington competition for a national title.

What are the winning criteria? Taste, clarity and bouquet -- think smell, said John Hall, head of advocacy and finance for the Tennessee Association of Utility Districts, which sponsors the regional and state contests.

Mr. Hall said judges, most usually from the area and almost always first-time judges, score the water on a 1 to 10 scale in each category. At the February regional, entrants all were within six points of each other, he said.

"It's always a lot of fun," he said. "We usually tell the judges that we've not lost a judge yet. They usually say the contest might go better with a little Scotch, or something."

Mr. Hall said the judges never know whose water they're trying and, in the regional contest, judges reached a tie with their first vote, requiring a taste-off of the top two. In the end, he said, Ocoee won by two points.

He said he did not know which utility came in second.

"We only identify the winner," he said.

Mr. Lawson said the secret of Ocoee's success is its water source.

"Our water comes from wells in Bradley County several miles away from the (Ocoee) River," he said.

He said that the utility stopped using the copper mining-contaminated river as a water source decades ago.

"Our water comes out without a lot of the contaminants, so we're ahead of the game," he said.

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