For the ultimate in drinking water in the state of Oregon, you’ll have to
journey all the way to – Rhododendron.

The Rhododendron Water Association walked away with first place honors as
Best Tasting Surface Water in Oregon at the 34th annual water utilities
conference held March 7 at Sun River.

“I am proud as hell to have our water association receive such an award,” said
Steve Graeper, president of RWA. “It is quite an honor to know we have the
best tasting surface water in the state, especially after all the turmoil our
treatment plant has been through over the past couple years.”

Graeper was referring to the 2010 disaster when a Douglas fir smashed into
the filtration unit during the late autumn rain storms. As reported in the April
2010 Mountain Times, RWA received an Excellence in Service award from the
Oregon Association of Water Utilities for its response to that crisis.

That same year, RWA garnered a second-place for tasting from OAWU, but
moved up to first place this year.

Graeper was quick to point to RWA Water Master David Jacob “for all his hard
work in providing excellent filtration and treatment of the RWA water.”

In turn, Jacob referred to the unique quality of Big Henry Creek, a tributary of
the Zigzag River and part of the Sandy River Basin Watershed, which delivers
the tasty treat to the association.

“Great tasting water comes from a great tasting source,” Jacob said. “It is my
job to make sure it stays that way.”

After many years of being in a reactionary mode and dealing with and paying
for repairs and emergencies as they arise, the RWA has shifted gears and is
now in a proactive position to hopefully prevent any future emergencies or
outages from occurring.

“We have a prioritized list of the capital improvements we need to accomplish
in order to upgrade our filtration and distribution systems and continue the
flow of the best tasting surface water in Oregon,” Graeper said.

Again, crediting Jacob as well as RWA Executive Secretary Marilyn Peterson,
Graeper added that the entire board is committed to taking the association
into the 21st Century.

“We have turned the association’s finances around and are bound and
determined to internally finance all the needed capital improvements,” he
said. “However, we are looking to accomplish this with only minor rate
increases and those increases will be primarily just to maintain a line with
inflation.”

And while the work is going on, board members and the fortunate recipients
of the liquid gold, will continue to quaff the state’s best surface water.