OCTORARO RESERVOIR — When Noel Brandon has blind-tasted tap water, he’s found the gulf between yuck and yum to be pretty wide.
“It’s easy to tell the difference between good water and bad water,” the Chester Water Authority board chair told PA Local. “When you taste bad water, you go, ‘Oh my gosh, how can anybody drink this?’”
The gap between what he called “good water” and “better water,” though? That’s much harder to discern — and what impresses him most about CWA’s tap water taking home six awards since 2023 for having the “best” flavor in the state.
At the annual conference held by the American Water Works Association’s Pennsylvania section in May, the CWA earned the top spot in both yearly taste tests: the panel-judged “Best of Pennsylvania,” and the “People’s Choice” award, voted on by conference attendees. This marks the third time in the past four conferences that the authority has earned both awards.
On Tuesday, the CWA — a municipal utility that serves the City of Chester in Delaware County and other nearby communities — will compete against other award-winning aquae from around the continent at the AWWA’s national conference in Washington, D.C., for a “Best of the Best” title.
Although that good-natured battle lies ahead, leaders and supporters of the water authority have been more concerned with a bigger fight over the past nine years: Retaining the CWA’s ownership and structure.
Spurred by an unsolicited 2017 bid from the private water company Aqua Pennsylvania, the public utility has resisted efforts to either sell or monetize its assets. Numerous legal conflicts have followed, including a state Supreme Court ruling earlier this year.
The case that ended up at the high court centered on who has the power to manage the authority’s assets. This was in question because the City of Chester, which formed the authority in 1939, has been considered financially distressed since 1995 and has been under state receivership since 2020. Chester, which filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2022, previously controlled the authority through a board entirely appointed by its city council. But a 2012 state law known as Act 73 amended the board structure to include members appointed by Chester and Delaware Counties as well.
Chester’s state-appointed receiver, as well as some city retirees concerned about the future of their pensions, have viewed the water authority’s assets as key to restoring the city’s financial health. But the state Supreme Court ruled in January that the city, and Delaware and Chester Counties, have equal representation in the authority — so the receiver cannot unilaterally make decisions about CWA assets.
In an interview with PA Local, Brandon said the authority’s recent accolades are among the reasons why the CWA shouldn’t be put up for sale.
Private entities, Brandon said, “don’t care about the water quality. What they care about is profits. We’re nonprofit. What we care about is service to our customers, reliability, affordability. Once that converts to a money-making machine … that all goes away.”
Spotlight PA asked Aqua Pennsylvania about that characterization, but the company was unable to respond by publication time.
Chester Receiver Vijay Kapoor told PA Local through a spokesperson that he agrees “that privatizing a water system could lead to unnecessarily high rates,” adding that his office has “said consistently that the water authority must remain in public hands.”
His vision, he wrote, would be for “the Water Authority provide a consistent stream of revenue to the City of Chester to compensate the City for its asset being unconstitutionally taken away by the General Assembly in 2012.”
Earlier this year, the receiver’s office filed a motion in Commonwealth Court to challenge the CWA board's very structure, arguing Act 73 was “special legislation” directed at only the CWA, which is forbidden under the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The taste test win, Kapoor said, is “great news for Chester’s residents, and we send our most sincere congratulations to the Authority.”
The source of Pennsylvania’s ‘best’-tasting water
The CWA’s effort to provide good-quality water doesn’t begin at its treatment plant, said Executive Manager Darryl Jenkins. “Our primary goal is to have the best source water coming in,” he said.
Although the authority is headquartered in Chester, its main water source and treatment plant are about 40 miles west.
The authority used to draw its water supply from the Delaware River, on which Chester sits. But in the early 20th century, heavy pollution spurred leaders to seek an alternative. The CWA acquired land by Octoraro Creek on the border of Chester and Lancaster Counties, where it constructed a two-billion-gallon reservoir and a treatment plant that opened in 1951.
Today, the CWA treats and distributes tens of millions of gallons from the Octoraro Reservoir every day, supplemented with water pumped 13 miles from the Susquehanna River when algae or other issues diminish the reservoir’s quality.
Like water, the authority’s efforts take a lot of shapes. To help reduce the amount of agricultural runoff that enters the Octaroro watershed, it works with farmers, Jenkins said. It also partners with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to plant trees around the reservoir, which help guard it from pollutants and erosion.
Additionally, the CWA has begun aerating the lake to improve its ecosystem, and deploys buoys that emit ultrasonic frequencies to manage algal growth.
“We’re constantly trying to improve the quality of this reservoir, because the more we could take out of here, the lower the cost is for our ratepayers,” Brandon said.
At the treatment plant, which PA Local toured, raw reservoir water undergoes what’s called “conventional water treatment.” Chemicals called coagulants are added to it to encourage small particles in the water to stick together. The water is then stirred to encourage the development of large clumps of particular matter called “flocs,” which settle to the bottom. The water on top is then filtered through layers of gravel, silica sand, and tiny pieces of anthracite coal.
In addition to regular laboratory testing, three employees at the plant taste the resulting water several times per day, Jenkins said, and if something seems off, adjustments are made.
Those tweaks could include reducing the amount of coagulant if the water tastes metallic, or adding powdered activated carbon to get rid of any bad flavors or odors, said Steve McBryde, director of plant operations. The flavor needs “polishing” more often in the summertime, he said, as algae are more likely to grow in the reservoir when it’s warmer.
Once it’s ready for distribution, the water gets pumped to nearby Oxford, and gravity carries it from there to the rest of the CWA’s service area via transmission mains.
Competing nationally
When the CWA heads to Washington next week, its tap will face 31 American and Canadian utilities, from an Illinois village’s public works department to one of New England’s largest water systems.
The American Water Works Association, a trade organization that represents over 4,300 utilities across North America, started hosting the “Best of the Best” Taste Test in 2005 to “celebrate and highlight the hard work that water professionals do,” said Dave Gaylinn, an AWWA spokesperson.
Each contender is chosen by their regional AWWA section via contests like the Pennsylvania version the CWA won. The entrants who advance to the national stage typically include a mix of newcomers and usual suspects, said Gaylinn, and all must have records free of regulatory violations for the past year.
Held annually at the AWWA Conference & Expo, the competition is an involved but often festive affair, according to Gaylinn.
Utilities typically deliver their samples in sealed, dark-colored, one-liter glass bottles stored in a cooler, Gaylinn said. He receives them, removes any “identifiable labels,” and assigns a number to each one so the competition can be judged blind.
Judges include a member of AWWA’s aesthetic and perceptions committee, a representative from a sponsoring organization (this year, it’s the consulting firm WSP), and a water sommelier — which is apparently a thing.
AWWA doesn’t specify what constitutes winning water, Gaylinn said, instead leaving it up to the judges to decide what factors to consider in their grading. Organizers provide judges with saltine crackers to cleanse their palates between tastings.
The judges narrow the field to a few finalists, per Gaylinn, and then imbibe and score them again in front of a crowd as representatives from those providers talk about their history, treatment process, and source water.
“It’s a chance for these utilities to celebrate their hard work and highlight their high-quality product,” Gaylinn said. “This is what they work for.”
Since 2013, the conference has also given out a “People’s Choice Award,” which is determined by the 1-through-10 ratings of conference attendees who try three-ounce samples of each competitor’s water.
No Pennsylvania utility has ever won a national Taste Test — and CWA leaders don’t anticipate taking home a title next week, Brandon said.
That’s because some of their competitors have groundwater sources, Jenkins explained, which often taste better because of “slightly higher mineral content.” Groundwater also typically requires less treatment than that from the surface.
Regardless, CWA’s reps still see qualifying as an honor for the authority and its 135 employees.
“We’re constantly monitoring the water, and you just can’t have a bad day,” Brandon said. “And to think that we have done that consistently, it’s quite a nice feeling, you know? So we’re very proud of that.”