Summer 2014
| NCRWA.COM
25
And the winner of the 2014
NCRWA Water Taste Test is….
(drum roll
please)
… the Town of Mount Olive. That
was the announcement made at this year’s
NCRWA Conference held at the Sheraton
at Four Seasons Hotel in Greensboro. There
were ten entrants for this year’s Water Taste
Test. The water samples were assigned a
number at random when they were delivered
to the registration desk. From there they were
stored in a secured refrigerator. The samples
were judged on four aesthetic qualities; color,
odor, clarity and taste, of course. The judges
graded the samples on a scale of 1 to 10, with
10 being the clearest, most odor free, and best
tasting. The task was a daunting one with a
runoff for first place and a runoff for third
place. So after the ten samples the judges had
to sample four of them again. It was still close
with one point making the difference between
first and second place.
The announcement of the winner found
Deems Blanton, the Water Plant ORC with
the Town of Mount Olive, with an expectant
smile on his face. It was a smile of quiet
confidence. He knew he had good water he
“drinks it all the time”.
Blanton came to work with the Town of Mount
Olive just over nine years ago. He started, as
most of us did, reading meters. It didn’t take
him long to see the advantages of AMR meters.
From meter reading Blanton has worked with
every aspect of the water system and is today
the Water Plant ORC. The task of ORC has
been a rewarding one for Blanton. Mount Olive
has come a long way with respect to water
treatment.Afew years ago they used sand filters.
Blanton was unhappy with the quality. The Iron
and Manganese residuals were inconsistent
and filters had to be back washed every day
or every 0.4MG. This caused complaints from
customers with odors and staining. The daily
backwash was such an “over use of water”.
Blanton knew that it could be better.
About two years ago, Blanton began
working with McGill & Associates and
Water Engineering to run a pilot filter system
for Mount Olive’s water plant. They tried
three media for the filters. The result was a
proprietary mixture of red and white sand.
The Town of Mount Olive made an addition
to the water plant and added four filters.
About a year ago they began the first system
in the State, if not the Nation, with this mix of
sand filters. This took “some doing” Blanton
confesses. He had a lot of data from the pilot
programs and used all of it to convince PWSS
that it would work.
By Debbie Maner
Water Taste Test
feature
By Becky Turner
