Dix Hills wins LI’s best-tasting water

In Dix Hills, it’s not what’s in the water that makes it so special -- it’s what’s missing.

After Dix Hills water won the Long Island Water Conference’s annual “best-tasting competition” on Monday, Dix Hills Water District Superintendent John Hennessey had a simple explanation.

“We don’t chlorinate,” Hennessey said. “We’re the only district right now on Long Island that doesn’t.”

All of Long Island’s water comes from the same aquifer, Hennessey said. But Dix Hills benefits from elevation, numerous area sewer districts (so less likelihood of contamination from cesspools and septic tanks) and a lack of industry, he said -- meaning that bacteria tests routinely come back clean, obviating the need for chlorination.

“Chlorination isn’t a bad thing,” Hennessey said, noting that at times the district has had to use it.

Do they get complaints about the taste when the water is chlorinated? “As soon as we do it,” he said. “It’s a different taste. People relate it to a swimming pool.”

Dix Hills water is next set to compete against other districts in the lower New York region, Hennessey said. If it wins there, the next stop would be the New York State Fair to vie for the title of New York’s tastiest water, which the district last scored in 2000.