St. Peter recognized with award for state’s best drinking water

ST. PETER, Minn. (KEYC) - The Minnesota State Fair is a place of competition, from food to livestock, but another item up for judging is water.

Each year, the Minnesota Department of Health judges communities on who has the best drinking water, and this year, St. Peter took home the prize for best drinking water in Minnesota.

“Well, we’ve got an excellent staff here that really works our water system. We do have two reverse-osmosis water plants, and they were built in 2011. They’ve been online for a little over 11 years now, and we’re starting to see the benefits of the new treatment facility,” St. Peter Public Works Director Pete Moulton said.

St. Peter’s system relies on taking in groundwater, filtering out things like iron and manganese, sending the water through the reverse-osmosis procedure, then delivering the water to residents.

Public works officials say that a big factor in the system’s success is the freedom to recognize and solve problems as they arise.

“One is the city council has allowed us to make the changes that are necessary there to provide great drinking water. We do have our challenges,” Moulton said. “We do have some nitrate issues, that’s why we have reverse-osmosis coming into the facility. And, like I mentioned, we have an excellent staff that knows how to operate the facility and keep everything operating in optimal conditions.”

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