Water from Southern Downs Regional Council‘s Killarney drinking water scheme was the clear winner at the Queensland Water Directorate‘s (Qldwater) Best of the Best Water Taste Test held at the Warwick Show in March. Killarney’s winning water is gravity fed from the Spring Creek Weir to the Killarney Water Treatment Plant. An 80 millimetre off stream storage dam can be used as a back up when it is not possible to use the creek due to floods or high rain events. Qldwater hosted a community water taste test to help the Southern Downs select its “top drop” to enter in the 2018 Ixom Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test.

With samples from four of Council’s water treatment plants, plus a mystery source, participants in the taste test were asked to judge the entries by colour, odour, and taste using a scientifically proven water wheel. Qldwater started the Best of the Best Queensland Water Taste Test in 2011 to promote the good work done by water service providers in producing a great quality product for their communities. Desiré Gralton from Qldwater said the taste test was a great conversation starter to get people thinking about the importance of water in their community. “We were fortunate to hear many different viewpoints from the Warwick community, and especially the children liked to tell us about the different ways they manage to save water at their homes,” Ms Gralton said.

“The taste of the water running from our taps are dependent on many factors – where the water comes from, how it’s treated – even how full or empty the dam is could result in different flavours,” Ms Gralton explained. “The taste test allows us to highlight the hard work that goes on in the background in order to deliver a high quality product to our taps each and every day.”

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