During the 64th Annual U.P. Water Treatment System Operator’s Training, which is associated with the American Water Works Association. Manistique competed against 11 other communities in a drinking water taste off. Manistique’s water supply is drawn from the Indian River – something which sets Manistique apart form many of the other communities in the taste competition. It’s very hard for a surface water treatment plant to compete against groundwater systems. Manistique is the first surface water plant to win the competition in the U.P.
Last year the city upgraded it’s water treatment plant to use ozone and granular activated carbon filtration in order to meet new drinking water quality rules making it the first in the U.P. One of the primary uses for ozone water treatment is taste and odor improvement. What makes ozone especially attractive for this application is that it can simultaneously improve water taste while also imrpoving disinfection and removing other water impurities. This is the case in Manistique.