Corbin CUC wins award for best tasting water

CUC chief water plant manager James Hampton and CUC General Manager Ron Herd accepted the award for best tasting water Monday.

Corbin has some of the best tasting water around, at least according to the results of an annual competition held at the Kentucky-Tennessee American Waterworks Association.

The organization is currently holding its annual conference in Knoxville, Tenn. and Corbin’s City Utilities Commission beat out seven other utility companies in a taste test competition held Monday.

“We entered it last year and didn’t win, but we were told we were close,” said Ron Herd, General Manager at CUC. “This time, we won. I’ve always thought we have good tasting water, so it’s nice to see others think so too.”

Herd said the conference is a regional event. Corbin’s water will now go on to a national taste testing competition where it will compete with other utility companies from around the United States.

Herd said CUC has received comments and letters from people in the past who “appreciate our good tasting water.”

“We had some people come in from out of state that stayed with us and they couldn’t believe the water they were drinking came out of a tap. They thought it was spring water or really good well water,” Herd said. “I told them it was city water and they were amazed.”

CUC gets its water, ultimately, from Laurel River. Herd said many factors could affect how water tastes, including the individual preferences of whoever is drinking it, alkalinity, presence of certain minerals and hardness, along with the way it is treated.

“I guess part of it is that the way we treat it works well and gets everything out of it that would negatively impact the taste,” Herd said.

Herd accepted the award for winning the competition along with CUC’s chief water plant operator James Hampton.