Wabigoon Lake has best tasting water

First Nations water is proving to be among the best tasting waters in northwestern Ontario.
Wabigoon Lake won the 18th Annual Water Taste Challenge on Oct. 26 at the 58th Annual Northwestern Ontario Water and Wastewater Conference and Dalles (Ochiichagwe’babigo’ining Ojibway Nation) won last year.
“I was actually kind of shocked — it took me about two or three seconds — did they just say Wabigoon Lake,” said Marcel Shabaquay, Wabigoon Lake’s water plant operator. “It’s definitely nice to know that our water is up there with all these municipalities.”
Terrace Bay won the water taste challenge four times since 2003, Thunder Bay twice with Loch Lomond water, and Marathon and Vermilion Bay once each.
“(The water) was judged on taste, colour, chlorine residual and clarity of the water,” Shabaquay said. “Ours was one of the better tasting waters.”
Shabaquay said the water taste challenge trophy is on display at the Wabigoon Lake band office.
“Lots of people keep coming up to me and saying, Marcel, you guys got the best tasting water in northwestern Ontario,” Shabaquay said. “It’s a really good feeling. And I’m getting lots of people coming down to the water plant so I can show them the processes and what kind of testing I do here.”
Shabaquay toured the Bare Point water treatment plant in Thunder Bay during the conference, noting that Bare Point has “a lot of operators” compared to his water plant, which used to have only one operator but now has two.
“They have a very nice water plant compared to my water treatment plant,” Shabaquay said. “It is humungous. They’ve got four or five lift stations.”
Paul Otis, technical services officer with Bimose Tribal Council, is proud of the two First Nation wins, noting the water taste challenge had previously allowed only municipal water treatment plants to enter until last year.
“Last year, not only did we win with the Dalles First Nation,” Otis said, “we took three of the top five for the first time ever entering the challenge.”
Otis said the water samples are judged using a system where the judges do not know where the different water samples are from.
“It’s always been the finale,” Otis said. “It’s something that everyone takes great pride in.”
Otis said the two wins show that First Nations are able to produce good water with limited infrastructure and resources.
“We’re working with one or two man crews with limited equipment, with limited money, with limited capital infrastructure and assets,” Otis said. “But we are still able to do not too bad, so we’re proud of that.”