In an event first, two councils have tied for the title of Queensland’s best tasting tap water.
The annual Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test, sponsored by TracWater, took place at the Waters Edge Function Centre in Brisbane on Thursday 22 August 2024 – as part of the Queensland Water Directorate’s 2024 Annual Forum.
After a rigorous blind tasting by more than 60 water industry representatives, joint winners – a first in the history of the competition – were announced: Isaac Regional Council’s Glenden Scheme, and Fraser Coast Regional Council’s Hervey Bay Scheme.
These two outstanding water sources were commended for their exceptional taste and quality. In addition, the runner-up for this year’s competition was Mackay Regional Council’s Marian Water Treatment Plant.
Isaac Council’s entry this year came from Glenden, a rural town of 475 people that is a major locality for a large coal mine. Drinking water for the community is sourced from the Gattonvale off-stream storage in the Bowen River Weir.
SunWater (Glencore) manages the pipeline that runs from the Bowen River Weir through a 100ML Newlands Coal Mine (Glencore) lagoon to the 6ML Turkey’s nest, located at the Glenden Water Treatment Plant. The plant has two operators that manually (no automation or SCADA) manage the water and wastewater operations in Glenden. It follows a standard treatment process of coagulation, flocculation, filtration and disinfection.
Fraser Coast’s Burgowan Water Treatment Plant sources water from Lake Lenthall on the Burrum River and takes it through a pre-treatment process of lime and carbon dioxide to produce a non-corrosive product water.
The treatment includes clarification, ozonation to remove dissolved organic matter, taste compounds and any algal toxins, biological activated carbon filters to remove readily biodegradable bi-products and residual floc particles and, finally, disinfection and water pH correction with sodium hypochlorite and sodium hydroxide respectively.
The runner– up – Mackay Regional Council’s Marian Scheme – sample is sourced from the Pioneer River that originated in the tropical rainforests of the Eungella National Park and Crediton State Forest and is treated using clarification, filtration and chlorine disinfection processes before being distributed to households and businesses in the townships of Marian and Mirani.
Other entries included samples from Bundaberg, Cairns, Gladstone, Gympie, Livingstone, Palm Island and Southern Downs councils as well as Seqwater.
The next stop for the winning entries is the National Best Tasting Tap Water competition in November in Tasmania, where they will compete against other top-performing water sources from across the country.
The Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test celebrates excellence in water quality and reinforces the importance of maintaining and improving the delivery of clean and safe drinking water to communities.
Further information about the award recipients can be found at: https://qldwater.com.au/qldwater-blog
Featured image: Queensland Water Directorate.
