Taste Test Says It All for MWD

Trihalomethanes are apparently tasteless.

The troubling chemicals, which if drunk in sufficient quantity may be linked to miscarriages, did not keep water provided by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California from being named as the best-tasting tap water in the country in a competition Saturday.

“Instead of breaking out the champagne bottle, we’ll be cracking out a glass and opening the tap,” said Roy Wolfe, associate director of water quality at the MWD. “We knew we had pretty good water. This is an opportunity to show the public what we’ve known, that it’s certainly safe to drink and pleasing to taste.”

The MWD’s H2 O, which officials are now calling the Academy Awards of water, beat 41 entries from 18 states at the eighth annual Toast to the Tap Water Tasting and Competition in Berkeley Springs, W.Va. In the contest, which the MWD had entered only once before, judges sip water as if it were wine.

The outcome was good news after weeks of controversy created by reports that researchers from the California Department of Health had found that drinking five or more glasses of tap water per day may increase the risk of miscarriage.

“It certainly is ironic,” MWD Deputy General Manager Ed Means said Sunday about the contest results.

Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), a byproduct of chlorine, are common in treated water. The study’s findings were inconclusive, but news of the study caused an uproar.

MWD officials tried to calm the fears of consumers by pointing out that levels of TTHMs in its water supplies are well below federal safety standards. Officials from other water agencies suggested measures to undermine any possible risk, such as the use of carbon filters or switching to bottled water.

Arthur von Wiesenberger of Santa Barbara, a water industry consultant and the “water master” for the West Virginia contest, said “indications are that L.A. water is not so bad after all, despite what some people may think.”

Von Wiesenberger trained an eclectic panel of judges, including media representatives and even a taste-and-smell disorder specialist, to look for the best-looking, -smelling and -tasting water among the entries.

“They are actually looking for the absence of things,” von Wiesenberger said. The best water has to be clear and without smell or taste, he said.

Reminiscent of wine tasting competitions, the judges were served two ounces of each sample in long-stem glasses.

After a quick visual inspection (murky water is a sure loser), the judges took three short sniffs and then sipped each sample.

“They have to make sure to roll over the tongue and palate” to get a complete taste and feel for the water, von Wiesenberger said.

The judges had the option to spit or swallow the water, but most in Saturday’s competition chose to swallow, he said.

J.W. Rone, the organizer of the event, said the MWD water, which finished fourth last year, scored 430 points out of a possible 528 to edge out other municipal entries like second-place Montpelier, Ohio; third-place Huntington Station, N.Y.; fourth-place Dover, Del.; and fifth-place Kent, Ohio.

“Given some of the recent scares, it is just kind of nice to know that you can get a refreshing glass of tap water,” MWD’s Means said.

The MWD sample that won the contest came from the Joseph Jensen Filtration Plant in Sylmar, Means said.

The plant, which treats 400 million gallons per day, supplies about 1 million people in Los Angeles and Ventura counties with water originally from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta in Northern California.

“It’s the Academy Awards of water,” Rob Hallwachs, a MWD spokesman, said, citing the water’s lack of “noticeable character” that made it vintage.

Von Wiesenberger, who once took a sample from actor Kirk Douglas’ Beverly Hills home to enter in the contest, said water tastes different from tap to tap.

“There is good quality water available in Southern California,” he said. But it depends on the agency supplying the water.

MWD and its 27 member agencies serve about 300 cities and 16 million consumers in Southern California. It sells water to local districts, like the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and agencies in Orange County and San Diego. It is the largest water district in the country.

“Southern Californians often deride or disparage [their water] and think bottled water is a superior product,” Hallwachs said.

But now, he said, customers can taste the winning water with just a twist of their faucet.

Hallwachs recommends serving it chilled.

*

Times staff writer Allison Cohen and Associated Press contributed to this story.