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CNN Live Today

Washington State Home to Best Tasting Water

Aired April 23, 2002 - 13:46   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, a competition today on Capitol Hill to see who holds the honors of having the best tasting water in the country. Our congressional correspondent, Kate Snow, joins us from Washington. How's the water in Washington, Kate? Is it in the running?

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think I want to say anything about the water in Washington. It's fine. It's fine. I buy a lot of bottled water myself.

But, I tell you, this was interesting, Kyra. These were water producers, places from all over the country, that are rural water supplies, where towns that are, you know, less than 1,000 people, for example, have rural water. And the winner, I can tell you, I just got off the phone with this town, they are out in Washington State. The name of the town is White Salmon. It is about 60 miles east of Portland, Oregon, just across the Columbia River. So it is just barely in the state of Washington, about 60 miles east of Portland.

And they tell me that they've got two wells out there. Now, if you want to taste their water, being the best water in the country, you are going to have a little bit of a stretch. You are going to have to find one of the 3,500 people or, to put it more precisely, 1,500 hookups. They only have 1,500 houses out there in the west at White Salmon, Washington who drink this water. So if you can make friends with one of them, you could taste it yourself.

I'm told that their water, by the water manager out there, a guy named Will Keyser (ph), he tells me that their water is really exceptionally clean and crisp. It comes from the mountains. It's fed by mountain springs and it's recharged. It is snow-melt water basically that comes off from the mountains and down into the their two wells that they have just recently finished building. They tell me just last year, actually, just within the last few months, they got the second well up and running.

Now, as you saw on that map, they weren't the only ones running for this competition. Yesterday, there were places from all over the country that ran. They whittled it down to five different rural water systems. And then today, they had the final taste-off. We have video of the judges judging this contest. Now they were tasting each of the five that you see on your map there, each of these five waters, one by one. And they had three different things they were tasting for: clarity, looking at the clarity; the bouquet, they were smelling the water; and then finally the taste. And then based on the cumulative scores, they came up with this.

We talked to one of the judges right afterwards about how it was to judge the water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH LUCAS, JUDGE: I think rural water systems all over the country are really doing an excellent job at making sure that their communities are drinking safe and clear and pure water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: I can tell you, Kyra, I actually begged and pleaded to be able to taste the winning water. They were keeping it kind of behind a curtain. So, I did get a taste of the winning water. It is absolutely wonderful water. It really tastes like -- it tastes like it just came off the side of a mountain. I mean, it's very clear, very crisp, and no aftertaste. They tell me that they put very little chlorine in the water. The minimum amount required by law is what they put out in White Salmon, Washington -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Sounds like kind of a fun place to go visit too. All right, Kate. Well, what about this award? West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd is getting some type of environmental award.

SNOW: Well, he got an award from this organization, the National Rural Water Association, honoring him for his service. Of course, he has been on the Senate Appropriations Committee. That's the committee that gives out money for, among other things, rural water projects. And he has been on that committee for 44 years, he kept reminding the audience.

It was interesting. Senator Byrd talked a lot about his roots. And, Kyra, in his little speech that he gave accepting the award, he said that he used to live in the 1920s in a very rural place in West Virginia where they didn't have any running water. So he said, you know, a lot of times, Americans forget how lucky we are that we have very good running water, even in rural communities now.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. Kate Snow from Capitol Hill, thank you so much. All right, let me get rid of that bottled water, go to White Salmon. Thanks, Kate.

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