Richmond Valley Council’s Casino Water Treatment Plant team is again headed to the national tap water tasting championships after taking out the top accolade for NSW and the ACT in the 2025 IXOM Best Tasting Tap Water competition.

Casino was awarded the top honour following competitive judging at the annual Water Industry Operators’ Association of Australia conference in Newcastle yesterday.

The judges conducted blind taste tests on samples from all 10 competing water utilities, evaluating them on colour, clarity, odour, and mouthfeel. Casino was declared the winner over Sydney Water and Central Coast, earning it a spot in the national showdown, competing for the Australian title in November.

This is the second state-level win for the Casino team, after taking out the top honours in 2020. The following year, Casino officially became home to the country’s best tap water, winning the 2021 Best Tasting Tap Water in Australia competition. In 2024, Council’s Operations Supervisor - Water and Sewer Services, David Cash, won the prestigious Operator of the Year award.

Council’s General Manager, Vaughan Macdonald, said he was proud of the entire Water and Sewer team and Casino Water Treatment Plant operators, who all worked hard to provide a quality service to all our customers across the Richmond Valley.

Mr Macdonald said the town water supply was pumped through 2.3 kilometres of rising main to reach the treatment plant, just on the outskirts of Casino.

He said that, servicing a community of more than 12,000 people, the plant was monitored 24 hours a day.

“Council is incredibly proud to receive this recognition; it’s a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team, who work every day to ensure our community has access to safe, high-quality drinking water,” Mr Macdonald said.

“Like most water suppliers, we continue to experience numerous challenges from natural disasters to changes in water regulation, which impact the way water service providers, including councils, supply and manage water and wastewater within their communities.

“We average a supply of six megalitres a day, with the capacity to provide 23 megalitres.

“The plant is a standard coagulation-flocculation-sedimentation process, with the filter media being a standard sand and filter coal configuration.”

Mr Macdonald said pumping from the Richmond River source brought its own sets of challenges, including blue-green algae and manganese.

“We are full-time dosing with activated carbon to alleviate taste and odour issues associated with the Richmond River,” he said.

“We also increase the activated carbon dose during summer months when dealing with blue-green algae. Potassium permanganate is periodically dosed for manganese issues.”

Mr Macdonald said the plant was in the process of trialling enhanced coagulation to further reduce natural organic material.

“The benefit is having to use less chlorine and minimising by-products in the drinking water,” he said.