Back in the day, a few Utah Jazz players – Joe Ingles, from Australia, comes to mind – were known as much for “talking smack” on the court as they were for shooting and rebounding. But it’s expected, after all – it’s professional sports.

Where you might not expect it is down at the Taylorsville-Bennion Improvement District offices.

“We don’t enter the best tasting water competition every year; we want to give other districts a chance to win once in a while.”

BOOM – mic drop – courtesy of TBID Senior Engineer Tammy North. But hey – just like Ingles dropping 3-pointers – if you can back it up…

North and four of her colleagues recently attended an American Water Works Association regional water conference in Kanab, where TBID dropped its most recent 3-pointer on all of the best water contest entries. For the fourth time since 2011, the Taylorsville water supplier won the “Best Groundwater” award. Moreover, after earning that honor, there was a “taste off” between the “Best Groundwater” (from wells) and “Best Surface Water” winners – and Taylorsville-Bennion won that also.

“I was very excited and proud when we won the awards,” TBID General Manager and CEO Mark Chalk said. “It’s nice to have everyone realize we have the best water in Utah. We get feedback from our customers all the time, they are happy with it.”

However, you may be questioning the “mic drop” status of the win. After all, only four “Best Groundwater” wins since 2011 means other districts have also been winning. So, let’s check the record – “review the tape,” if you will.

The Taylorsville-Bennion Improvement District entered its water in 2011 – and won. TBID entered again in 2012 – won. In 2013 – uh, don’t some people call that a “threepeat?”

Then, as Tammy North pointed out, TBID chose not to enter its water in the AWWA contest to “give other districts a chance to win.”

Now, granted, somewhere along the way, the local district did not win (we’ll call it an “off night”), before returning to the winner’s circle this year. That’s four wins in five tries in the “Best Groundwater” category. And half those times – in 2012 and 2024 – TBID also earned the “Best Overall Water” competition, defeating the “Best Surface Water” winner. 

“Well water, or groundwater, is typically not as good as surface water; that’s just how it is; groundwater is rarely judged to be tastier than surface water,” Chalk said. “For us to win best overall water twice in four tries is pretty impressive.”

At the AWWA regional conference, the water taste contest was open to every water district in Utah as well as those in southeastern Idaho. With the win, the TBID water is now eligible to be judged at next summer’s AWWA National Conference.

TBID’s top brass attend the AWWA Intermountain Section conference every year – not just to run victory laps.

“Our five-member executive team attend the conference because it’s specific to drinking water and offers lots of valuable education,” North said. “They have great classes and good opportunities to network with other water districts. Several vendors are also there to show off the best new equipment and water distribution technology. It’s a great chance to talk with other water professionals about successes and challenges.”

One of those recent challenges all water districts have been addressing lately, nationwide, came courtesy of Uncle Sam.

“A recent federal rule change from the Environmental Protection Agency has required us to conduct a service pipe inventory to make sure we have no lead pipes being used in our water distribution system,” Chalk said. “This was not really a ‘front-burner’ issue until Flint, Michigan water was making all the news.”

In case you’ve forgotten, a decade ago a financial crisis in Michigan prompted the decision to switch Flint’s culinary water from a safer, cleaner source to Flint River water. In that change, crews failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply. 

As a result of that health disaster, many federal regulations have been tightened. This most recent change requires local water districts to survey their pipes to make certain none of them are lead.

“We were extremely confident we did not have any lead pipes in our system,” Chalk explained. “But keeping our water customers safe is our top priority – so we complied with the EPA regulations. We inventoried about 400 of our 17,300 customer connections.” 

These checks involved asking homeowners to take and submit some photographs of their pipes. It also required TBID crews to dig some holes with their vactor truck.

“We have two vactor trucks which use a strong vacuum along with a water jet to excavate,” Chalk said. “Our crews excavated and observed about 100 pipes. It was labor intensive.  But the bottom line is, we confirmed there are no lead pipes distributing water to Taylorsville homes and businesses.”

TBID officials admit it’s a challenge when the EPA adds in these kinds of requirements when they are already certain they don’t have a lead water pipe issue.

“Honestly, my crews are already so busy; I believe we have the least number of employees per water connection of any system in the state,” Chalk concluded. “These kinds of unfunded federal mandates can be difficult and frustrating. But, again, public safety is our top priority. So, we got it done and there were no surprises. We do not have lead pipes in our system.”

Chalk admits TBID cannot be “absolutely 100% certain” there are no lead pipes, because they have not actually laid eyes on every last pipe. But the district is as certain as it can be – and certain enough to satisfy the requirements of the EPA regulation changes. Officials say if there are any lead pipe issues in Utah water systems, they are most likely in Salt Lake or Park City, where even older pipes are still in use.

At the Taylorsville-Bennion Improvement District, the pipes are not a health hazard – and the water is almost always judged to be the best in Utah… mic drop. λ