Henrico water wins top North America prize. For real.
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Henrico County has the best-tasting tap water in North America, according to the American Water Works Association.
Why it matters: As we all learned earlier this year, Henrico's water, at least in part of the county, is basically Richmond water.
- And Richmond water is a lot of things, but award-winning aint one.
State of play: Henrico County won the "Best of the Best Water Taste Test" award at the association's annual conference in Denver, the county announced last week.
- The international nonprofit sampled water from 26 localities across the country and in Canada to find the very best.
- The judges scored the samples on "odor, flavor and aftertaste" to declare the winner. (Sadly, score cards weren't available.)
- And Henrico's water, which is pumped in straight from the James, was the clear favorite, beating out two other finalists — Taylorsville Bennion Valley, Utah and Ames, Iowa — to claim the water crown.
Fun fact: About one-third of Henrico's water comes from Richmond. The rest of it comes from the county's Three Chopt water treatment facility, per the release.
Zoom in: Henrico was eligible to participate on the international best water stage because the association's state chapter last year named the county's tap water the best-tasting in Virginia, WWBT reported in December.
- The county's water employees "are the 'secret sauce' to the water's excellence," Alvin Christian, assistant director of Henrico's public utilities, told WWBT.
💅 The intrigue: Only municipalities with "no violations from their respective health departments in the past year" were eligible for the competition, Henrico noted in its release.
The bottom line: Water jokes forever might be the silver lining we didn't know we needed in Richmond's water crisis.