CROSSVILLE – McMinnville Utilities now has some major bragging rights among its UC brethren.
The city water department recently won the Region 4 “Best Tasting Water Contest” sponsored by the Tennessee Association of Utility Districts (TAUD). The competition took place last week at the Cumberland County Community Complex in Crossville; the drinking water samples were judged on clarity, bouquet and taste.
TAUD Region 4 consists of Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Roane, Smith, Trousdale, Warren and White counties. Van Buren is in TAUD’s District 10 and Cannon in Region 6.
In addition to McMinnville, several other utilities from Region 4 submitted drinking water samples for the competition, including Byrdstown Water Department, Crab Orchard Utility District, the City of Crossville, the City of Jamestown, Warren County Utility District and West Warren-Viola Utility District. Jamestown Gas & Water was last crowded the winner in 2015.
Jerry Jolley, USDA Rural Development; David Phillips, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation; and Craig Ingram with TN811, the underground utility notification center for Tennessee, served as contest judges.
TAUD conducts the “Best Tasting Water in Tennessee Contest” in each of the association’s 11 regions. The winner of each region will participate in a statewide competition at a TAUD conference in Gatlinburg Aug. 11. The statewide winner will then represent Tennessee in the Great American Taste Test held in conjunction with the National Rural Water Association Rally in Washington, D. C., in February 2017.
TAUD, founded in 1957, serves as the state’s main source of training, technical assistance and advocacy for more than 400 water, wastewater and natural gas utility members in Tennessee. For more information, visit www.taud.org.
