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Fifth grader Liliana Snelson takes the last gulp of water in the blind tap water taste test at the New Hampshire Drinking Water Festival on May 8. -
Students at the New Hampshire Drinking Water Festival sample tap water from five cities and towns on May 8. Concord has been the favorite in six of the last seven contests. -
Students at the New Hampshire Drinking Water Festival sample tap water from five cities and towns on May 8. Concord has been the favorite in six of the last seven contests. -
Choosing a favorite, for some students was tough โ as one put it, โThey all taste like water.โ For others, like Zoe and Noah, some were more clearly more โrefreshing,โ โclean,โ and less โchemically.โ -
Choosing a favorite, for some students was tough โ as one put it, “They all taste like water.” For others, like Zoe and Noah, some were more clearly more “refreshing,” “clean,” and less “chemically.” -
Drew Lavigne carefully ranks the best and worst tasting waters she sampled. Hooksett’s won out for her, in the end, because “it tasted the most normal.” -
Each town or city had to follow strict rules for preparing its water โ it had to be taken from the tap that day, put in a cooler without ice, never refrigerated, and transported to the festival, where organizers poured it into cups for students to blindly sample. -
Each town or city had to follow strict rules for preparing its water โ it had to be taken from the tap that day, put in a cooler without ice, never refrigerated, and transported to the festival, where organizers poured it into cups for students to blindly sample. -
Each town or city had to follow strict rules for preparing its water โ it had to be taken from the tap that day, put in a cooler without ice, never refrigerated, and transported to the festival, where organizers poured it into cups for students to blindly sample. -
For many of the students, the water that tastes closest to what they have at home is what will appeal to them the most, organizers explained. That was true for Rosalie Belanger from Newington, who said she preferred Hooksett’s water because it “tasted the most like water” and was “plain.”
New England has three great dynasties: Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots and Concord, N.H. and its drinking water.
At least, thatโs how City Manager Tom Aspell sees things. Heโs not wrong: The capital city has won the title of best drinking water in the state of New Hampshire in six of the last seven competitions, including this year.
Fifth-grader Liliana Snelson didnโt know that as she peered into a half-fullย white Dixie cup, took a sip, and then another, savoring it for a moment. Then, she downed the rest, looking up and closing her eyes tightly.
Liliana, and fourth and fifth graders from across the state, were asked to blindly taste five tap waters from five New Hampshire municipalities: Concord, Hooksett, Manchester, Plymouth and Rochester. Each then chose which one they thought tasted the best.
Liliana, from the Maple Wood Elementary in Somersworth, chose the cup labeled โAโ โ Concordโs water. She chose it because it โtasted like clear.โ Some of the others โjust taste crustyโ she said, โlike when water sits in a cup for, like, days.โ
For the same reasons, though, classmate Janaya Thurston preferred the cup labeled โBโ from Hooksett โ highly decorated water in its own right. Hooksettโs water took home second in the country at the Great American Water Taste Contest, which the National Rural Water Association hosted in February.
Picking a favorite from five tap waters was, for some, tricky. As one student struggling to make his vote put it, โthey all taste like water.โ
Many students will prefer the water most like what they have at home, explained Sophie Ricard, the environmental compliance manager for the city of Concordโs water treatment plant.
โThey usually vote what they know,โ she said. โWhat they know is, this is good water because I drink it every day.โ
Kaiden Doughty from William Allen Elementary in Rochester, though, placed Concord at the bottom of his ranking.
โIt tasted like tap water,โ he said plainly.
The state drinking water contest was just one portion of the New Hampshire Drinking Water Festival, where the Department of Environmental Services hosts professionals from around the state to show fourth and fifth grades how water treatment โ and contamination โ works.
The event also includes a water science fair. This yearโs winner was Rochesterโs Hollis Magee, whose project unpacked the effects of pollution on wildlife in a river. Two standouts from Keene โ Reid Connellโs demonstration of natural stream filtering and Quinn Viethโs โpitch perfectโ water xylophone โ also placed in the top. Liv Marino won first place for her poem.
As they cycled through projects and stations, kids from each school stopped to sip and judge the tap water.
โI love that the kids get to pick, because theyโre so unbiased. Theyโre very blatant,โ Ricard said. โSomeone said, โthis one tastes like bread.โ And Iโm like, โHow does water taste like bread?โโ
As students made their way from cup to cup, noses scrunched in disapproval at ones that tasters said had a โchemicallyโ or even โsaltyโ flavor.
Thatโs probably to do with the type of chlorination and how much of it the treatment system uses, Ricard said.
โThe perfect water recipe is it tastes like nothing,โ she said. โIf you can taste the bleach, or smell it, that right away deters people.โ
Groundwater systems tend to carry more minerals than surface water systems, which can lend a metallic flavor, or mean more treatment to try and get that out.
Concordโs advantage is that it comes from a well-protected surface water system that also, because of its size, can rely on slow-acting monochloramine treatment that doesnโt produce a strong taste.
The capital cityโs drinking water is pulled from Penacook Lake, also known from a previous vintage as Long Pond, where all recreational activity has been banned since 1951. The city also owns and protects all of the land surrounding the body of water.
โOnce a water source is contaminated, you can almost never get it clean. Itโs contaminated for life,โ Ricard said. โWe have fantastic raw water quality…it almost makes it so easy to treat it, because youโre most of the way there. You just polish it.โ
Concord has been protective of its drinking water in more ways than just environmentally. Neighboring Bow and Pembroke โ dealing with contamination in their water supplies โ are hoping to link up with Concordโs water. City leaders arenโt so sure they want to share, both for capacity and economic reasons. Theyโre awaiting the results of a federally funded study into whether Concordโs system can handle selling water to neighboring towns.
In the meantime, Concordโs award-winning status earns it praise and pride from those leaders.
When Byron Champlin took his wife out to dinner for Motherโs Day, they were asked by the hostess if they wanted still, sparkling or tap water.
โI said โI want to have some of that great Concord tap water,โโ Champlin recounted this week as the city celebrated another aquatic championship. โShe said โIt is very good,โ and I said, โNo, itโs the best.โ โ
Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. She participated in the blind taste test. To learn which one she chose, you can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.
