California Water District Wins Prize For Best Tasting Tap Water In US

BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. (CBS13/AP) — A southern California water district has won the top prize for U.S. tap water at an international tasting contest.

California entries took the top two places for Best Municipal Water on Saturday at the 31st annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting in West Virginia.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California finished first and Santa Ana, California, took second. Those competitors finished first in the category in 2008 and 2018, respectively.

Third place went to the Southwest Water Authority of Dickinson, North Dakota.

The top bottled water award was given to Ulunom in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Eldorado Natural Spring Water of Eldorado Springs, Colorado, finished second and Jasa Spring Water of Gorham, Ontario, Canada, was third.

Judges based their rankings on taste, odor, mouth feel, and aftertaste. Nine judges chose from among entries in 19 states, three Canadian provinces, and 14 other countries. Rossarden, a town in Australia's Tasmania state, was selected as the best municipal water in the world.

In 2019, authorities in Nevada County found the source of mysterious contamination that turned the South Yuba River yellow.

Investigators traced it to a property with numerous code violations on the 13000 block of Kilham Mine Road in Nevada City. This came after a stretch of the river was closed to swimming after high levels of E. coli were found in the water.