If you think the water tastes good in Casino, you’d be spot on.

Known more for its beef, Casino is officially home to Australia’s best tap water.

Richmond Valley Council has won top honours in the Ixom 2021 Best Tasting Tap Water in Australia competition.

The council beat out Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia and Tasmania and will go on to represent Australia at the annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Competition held in West Virginia, USA.

The annual competition was held virtually with a judging panel assessing samples from six water treatment plants on colour, clarity, odour and mouthfeel.

The council’s Community Service Delivery director Angela Jones said the town water supply was pumped through more than three kilometres of rising mains to reach the treatment plant, just on the outskirts of Casino.

The plant services more than 11,000 people and is monitored 24 hours a day.

“We average a supply of six megalitres a day, with capacity to provide 23 megalitres,” Ms Jones said.

“The plant is a standard coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation process, with the filter media being a standard sand and filter coal configuration.”

Ms Jones said pumping from the Richmond River source brought challenges including blue-green algae and manganese.

“We are full-time dosing with activated carbon to alleviate taste and odour issues associated with the Richmond River,” she said.

“We also increase the activated carbon dose during summer months when dealing with blue-green algae. Potassium permanganate is periodically dosed for manganese issues.”

The plant was in the process of trialling enhanced coagulation to further reduce natural organic material, she said.

“The benefit is having to use less chlorine and minimising by-products in the drinking water,” she said.

“This award motivates us to further improve our processes at the treatment plant.

“I’m very proud of our small but dedicated crew.”

This article appeared on indyNR.com on 20 January 2022.