NEW YORK, AUG 29, 2018 -- Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Vincent Sapienza announced that the City’s tap water was awarded the top prize in New York State's Regional Metro Tap Water Taste Test competition. The contest was held on Tuesday at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan and pitted New York City's tap water against drinking water from Westchester, Orange, Nassau, and Suffolk counties. Museum visitors sampled tap water from the five suppliers and ranked them by taste, with New York City's tap water judged the best.
"New York City tap water is recognized around the world for its taste and high quality and we're proud to once again represent southeastern New York at the State Fair," said DEP Commissioner Sapienza. "To ensure future generations continue to enjoy world class New York City tap water, we invest billions of dollars every year to protect our upstate reservoirs and upgrade our water supply system."
After winning the Regional Taste Contest competition, New York City tap water will next compete in a statewide contest to be held at the Great New York State Fair in Syracuse, N.Y. on August 30. The annual taste test competition, which takes place in county, regional, and statewide contests, is organized by the New York State Water and Wastewater Education and Outreach Committee.
New York City's tap water is internationally renowned for its quality. New York is one of only five large cities in the country permitted to run a largely unfiltered drinking water supply, due in large part to the City's comprehensive watershed protection programs. To ensure the water is safe and of the highest quality, DEP performs more than 630,000 analyses of the city’s drinking water every year. Samples are collected from the streams that feed the reservoirs, the reservoirs themselves, the aqueducts that carry the water to the city, and from nearly 1,000 sampling locations throughout the five boroughs. Each year, DEP publishes a Water Supply and Quality Report with detailed information about the water supply and the quality of the City’s drinking water. To view the report click here.
NYC Water is a healthy alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages, containing zero calories, zero sugar, and zero fat. It is also affordable -- at roughly one penny per gallon, it is approximately 1,000 times less expensive than bottled water. In addition, drinking NYC Water helps to protect the environment, as the production of plastic water bottles for use in the United States uses 1.5 million barrels of oil a year -- enough to power 250,000 homes or 100,000 cars all year.
DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of water each day to more than 9 million residents, including 8.6 million in New York City. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep.
