Setting the standard
Marshalltown Water Works wins People’s Choice Award at statewide conference
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Marshalltown residents have always taken pride in the high quality and delicious taste of their water, and it's now official that the rest of the state agrees. Marshalltown Water Works (MWW) won the People's Choice Award at the Iowa Section AWWA Annual Conference competing against water utilities from across the state.
As MWW General Manager Zach Maxfield explained, the award is the result of a vote based on blind taste-testing and includes communities and utilities of all sizes.
"It's a pretty big award because it's not just people who are not involved with water, but it's people that know water and voted that we are the best tasting," he said. "It doesn't matter on the size, where you get your water, how you get your water, how you treat your water... Big or small communities, we're all here."
Maxfield credited lime softening as a major reason for the high quality taste along with the hard work of the MWW staff from treatment plant operators performing 24-hour a day testing to the distribution crews ensuring the water makes it into the customer's faucet. The organization recently celebrated its 150th anniversary, and construction of a new plant is underway on the north edge of town.
"We're investing in our system, and by doing that, we're hoping to be able to continue to do this for a really long time," Maxfield said. "We just celebrated our 150-year anniversary this month, and we're trying to make sure we have another great 150 years."
And as conversations about protecting water and improving water quality continue to ramp up across the state, Maxfield is confident that MWW will lead the way.
"Water quality and cancer -- nitrates -- are a hot-button item right now here, and Marshalltown kind of sets the standard with that," he said. "We not only have great-tasting water, but we don't have nitrates. We don't have some of those harmful chemicals in our water that will get you sick. And so, part of the thing we do here is public health, which isn't thought about enough. So we're really fortunate to have great water that not only keeps you healthy but tastes good, and we look forward to continuing that excellence and kind of being a standard for the state."
Above all else, Maxfield thanked his staff for doing a thankless job and working around the clock.
"You turn your tap on and you think that water just magically appears, but it's hours of hard work and money that goes into these things that make sure we do what we do," he said.
Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.