Water Week, 2003 — Its All About Good Taste!

Roxy Johnston

Volunteers discuss drinking water source protection with passersby at the Ithaca Farmers’ Market.

Results from Tompkins County's 10th annual Drinking Water Taste Test are in! This year's contest drew the most participants ever, with eight municipal water systems from Tompkins County vying for first place, and 370 people casting their votes. The City of Ithaca took the prize for 2003, with 75 votes. They will go on to compete in an upcoming Regional State Water Taste Test. The Taste Test was part of a National Drinking Water Week celebration, which was co-hosted by the Tompkins County Health Department and the Cayuga Lake Watershed Network.

While it is clear that watershed residents take their drinking water seriously, the celebration also featured information booths by many other organizations at Center Ithaca and the Ithaca Farmer’s Market on May 9th and 10th respectively, and a month-long display at the Pyramid Mall. Related events included invasive plant removal around the City of Ithaca Reservoir by Friends of Six Mile Creek, and a stream bank restoration project at the Ithaca Farmers’ Market by the Black Locust Initiative with technical and field assistance from the Network.

To kick off water week, 45 volunteers who removed 2400 pounds of trash from Fall Creek and its banks. Working from its source at Lake Como to its mouth at Stewart Park, were citizens and members of the Fall Creek Watershed Committee, the Fall Creek Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Community Fly Fisher, Cornell Roots and Shoots, Tompkins and Cortland Soil and Water Conservation Districts, NYSEG, and the Lake Como Association. Target, Tops and Wegmans donated supplies, and the Town of Dryden and the City of Ithaca helped immensely by hauling away the stove, TV, mattress, tires, cans, bottles and other litter the volunteers collected.