For the second year in a row, BHP’s Olympic Dam Desalination Plant has earned the title of IXOM Best Tasting Tap Water in South Australia.
BHP faced off against Trility’s Loxton Park water treatment plant in the grand finials, held on Tuesday, 6 August at the Interest Day & Water Taste Test in Hope Valley.
The winning plant now has bragging rights over the other water suppliers in South Australia for the next 12 months and will go on to battle it out against the best from other states for the Australian title in November 2024. After TasWater’s Fern Tree water treatment plant took out the coveted Australian title in 2023, the 2024 national competition will be hosted in Tasmania.
The annual IXOM Best Tasting Tap Water competition is a fun and exciting way to raise awareness of the quality of drinking water in Australia, and to recognise the efforts of local water service providers in delivering valuable water services to their communities.
Water samples are subjected to a blind taste test and rated according to the Water Tasting Wheel, which outlines some of the attributes that water professionals use when judging water such as colour, clarity, odour and taste. Think ‘wine tasting’ without needing to spit out the samples and you won’t be far wrong.
In its search for the best tasting tap water in each state and nationally, WIOA invites all water suppliers to participate in the competition.
WIOA Chief Executive Officer, Dean Barnett, said, “The competition celebrates the individuals and organisations that strive hard, some in very trying circumstances, to ensure their communities are supplied with safe drinking water every day.
“We want to draw people’s attention to the great work that is going on behind the scenes in their local communities to help shape and secure Australia’s water future.”
Mr Barnett also acknowledged IXOM’s support of the Best Tasting Tap Water competition.
“Thanks to IXOM’s unwavering commitment to the industry, we continue to be able to run the competition.”
IXOM CEO, Bryce Wolfe, said that IXOM is proud to be the sponsor of the prestigious 2024 IXOM Best Tasting Tap Water competition.
“IXOM is a leading supplier of water treatment chemicals to the water sector. We’ve been a proud local manufacturer for more than a century, supplying chemicals to water treatment plants all over Australia to help ensure everyone has access to safe, clean and great-tasting drinking water,” Mr Wolfe said.
The winner of the IXOM 2024 Best Tasting Tap Water in Australia competition will have the opportunity to represent Australia at the annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Competition in West Virginia, USA.
Featured image: the SA IXOM Best Tasting Tap Water competition winner. Image: WIOA.
