Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
TEN SLEEP — And the judges choice is the Town of Ten Sleep, marking three victories in the last eight years as the Best Tasting Drinking Water in Wyoming contest for the Wyoming Association of Rural Water Systems.
Charity LaFountain, state field representative for U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney; Chelsea Combe, marketing specialist with Visit Casper and Riata Little Walker with Lariat Communications and Wyoming Association of Rural Water Systems Apprenticeship Coordinator participated as finals judges last week for the Best Tasting Drinking Water in Wyoming contest at the 30th annual Wyoming Association of Rural Water Systems (WARWS) Technical Conference and Industry Trade Show in Casper last week.
Each year across the country water systems compete at the state level judged on clarity, odor and taste. Winners of the state contests are invited to attend the National Great American Water Taste contest held each year during the National Rural Water Rally in Washington, DC. Last year, the City of Rawlins won the state event and represented Wyoming in Washington, DC where they finished in the top 10.
This year’s winner will again represent Wyoming at the national contest in February 2022. In addition to the invitation to compete, the winners will meet with Wyoming’s congressional delegation to discuss issues and challenges they face in providing quality drinking water for their community or water system as well as meeting with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, U.S. Department of Labor and the National Rural Water Association.
This year’s finalists were perennial finalists, the Town of Saratoga, Town of Ten Sleep and Grand Targhee Resort. Each have been multiple year finalists and previous winners.
Ten Sleep Mayor Ernie Beckley said, “We’ve known for years that we’re fortunate to have great water in Ten Sleep and we’re very happy to be recognized as the best in Wyoming for the third time in the last eight years.”
In addition to sessions on technical issues and industry updates geared towards continuing education to maintain State Licensure, attendees heard from state and federal regulators on rules and regulation updates, emergency response planning strategies, international cyber security experts on Information Technology deterrent strategies, outdoor sessions trained on leak detection, sewer jetting for maintenance, CCTV equipment operation, heavy equipment operation at a “Heavy Equipment Olympics”, Asset Management, pump maintenance and management and from Sen. John Barrasso who thanked the attendees for their work during the pandemic to provide clean water to our hospitals and homes as well as thanking all the veterans who work in the industry and presented several veterans attending with “Senate Challenge Coins”. Agencies attending and presenting included Wyoming DEQ, USEPA, CISA, MCGA, Wyoming Office of Homeland Security in addition to industry experts on current topics of interest.
The Wyoming Association of Rural Water Systems is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to assisting its membership with training and technical assistance to enable Wyoming’s rural water and wastewater systems to provide Quality on Tap safe, affordable drinking water.