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Press, 13 June 1984, Page 35

NZPA-AP Dallas Three judges sipped, slurped and sniffed the contents of their wine glasses for 40 minutes, then picked New Orleans tap water as the tastiest in the First Annual Great Invitational International Water-Tasting Challenge. New York officials, boasting beforehand that their water piped in from the Adirondack Mountains would win easily, had said the city’s seven competitors were all wet. “New York expected to win easily,” said Andrew McCarthy, spokesman for the city department of environmental protection. The Big Apple’s juice didn’t even finish among the top three choices of the judges, one of whom was appropriately named Fish. New Orleans was the clear winner with a score of 1.67 for its water drawn from the Mississippi River, said Bob Spangler, public relations director of the American Water Works Association.

The taste-off, the result of a challenge by the Mayor of Dallas, Starke Taylor, who

claimed his city’s water was the nation’s best, took place just before the start of the association’s national convention.

The samples were rated from zero to 10, with zero a perfect score. Miami finished second and Dallas third after a sudden-death taste-off. Neither their scores, nor the rankings of the other cities, were released. But the worst rating was 9.7.

The other cities entered were Chicaco. Seattle, Los Angeles and Toronto. Mexico City was also supposed to be entered, but its water sample did not arrive, apparently because of a language mix-up, Mr Spangler said. One of the judges, Gustav Boger, director of the Munich, West Germany, water department, said he wasn’t surprised that he picked the New Orleans sample as the best. “I had already visited the World’s Fair and liked the water there very much,” Mr Boger said. Joining Mr Boger in judging the competition was Hugh Fish, chief executive

of Thames Water, London, and Dr Michael Collins, director for the Centre of Urban Water Studies at Southern Methodist University. “The cities whose water didn’t place among the top three didn’t get rated because the organisation did not want to inflict the personal opinion of the judges here in Dallas upon citizens of the remaining contestants, whose water is otherwise excellent,” said the Water Works Association president, William O. Lynch. Mr Spangler compared the losers to Olympic athletes — “they had to be good to get into the finals. They’re all winners.” The judges said they rated the entries on clarity (whether there’s anything swimming around in there), aroma (there shouldn’t be any), feel (whether it’s soapy or hard) and flavour (whether it’s metallic or chlorinous). New Orleans, which also won a private testing sponsored recently by the Dallas “News,” will get a silverplated trophy for its tap water.