OAK CREEK — A jug of water sits inside the Oak Creek Water and Sewer Utility. However, it's not just any jug of water. It is the award-winning best tasting water in all of Wisconsin for 2021.
Oak Creek beat about a dozen other municipalities to earn the title of best tasting water in Wisconsin. Just to be clear, yes, we are talking about straight up tap water.
The American Water Works Association presided over the ruling. Various judges told Oak Creek that they liked the minerals and very slight hint of chlorine.
"Well it's subjective to the judges taste of course, but were pretty proud of it. We do a pretty good job of keeping things up to standards. We go above and beyond what’s required," Mike Robe, the plant manager at the Oak Creek Water and Sewer Utility said.
While it may be subjective, there is an official plaque to prove it. Plus, a win is a win.
"We’ve got a great source with Lake Michigan, so it's very stable. So that’s kind of consistent throughout the plants on the lake. Other than adding some chlorine some, fluoride, just a conventional treatment is what we have," Robe said.
The plant doesn't do anything too crazy to the water. However, it won over the judges and that's what matters. The same jug of water will go on to compete in a national competition against the 49 other municipalities that won their respective state's competition.
A story like this wouldn't be complete without a taste test to see if there really was any difference with how certain waters taste. In this side-by-side comparison, our reporter tested generic bottled water, Milwaukee tap water, and Oak Creek tap water.
Generic bottled water: “Tastes about as generic as you could imagine.”
Milwaukee tap water: “They kind of taste similar. I don’t really notice a difference. I’m not an expert though. But I’m giving the edge to Milwaukee tap water.”
Oak Creek tap water: “You know what and I’m not just saying this. I actually - I think that is a little better. By like a slight margin. I never would have thought I’d notice a difference in water taste, but there it is."
