CASINO is officially home to Australia’s best tap water with Richmond Valley Council today taking out top honours in the Ixom 2021 Best Tasting Tap Water in Australia competition.
Representing NSW, Council beat out Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia and Tasmania and will now go on to represent Australia at the annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Competition held in West Virginia, USA.
The annual competition was held virtually, with a judging panel assessing samples from six water treatment plants on colour, clarity, odour and mouthfeel.
Council’s Director Community Service Delivery Angela Jones said she was proud of the entire team at the Water Treatment Plant, who all worked hard to provide a quality service to Casino and surrounds.
Ms Jones said the town water supply was pumped through more than three kilometres of rising main to reach the treatment plant, just on the outskirts of Casino.
She said servicing a community of more than 11,000 people, the plant was monitored 24 hours a day.
“Winning this award is a huge honour for both our Casino Water Treatment Plant crew and the organisation as a whole,” Ms Jones said.
“Like most water suppliers, we continue to experience numerous challenges from natural disasters to changes in water regulation, which impact the way water service providers, including councils, supply and manage water and wastewater within their communities.
“We average a supply of six megalitres a day, with the capacity to provide 23 megalitres.
“The plant is a standard coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation process, with the filter media being a standard sand and filter coal configuration.”
Ms Jones said pumping from the Richmond River source brought its own sets of challenges, including blue-green algae and manganese.
“We are full-time dosing with activated carbon to alleviate taste and odour issues associated with the Richmond River,” she said.
“We also increase the activated carbon dose during summer months when dealing with blue-green algae. Potassium permanganate is periodically dosed for manganese issues.”
Ms Jones said the plant was in the process of trialling enhanced coagulation to further reduce natural organic material.
“The benefit is having to use less chlorine and minimising by-products in the drinking water,” she said.
“This award motivates us to further improve our processes at the treatment plant.
“I’m very proud of our small but dedicated crew.”