BLUFFDALE — One thing is certain at the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District: No two water samples are the same.

This much becomes clear during monthly district taste tests where water experts casually sniff specially prepared beakers filled with water and analyze the flavor. The employees drink the water so much they can taste the difference between three samples of surface water and groundwater and tell whether too much chlorine has been added.

It's an elaborate process for something that boils down to preference, but these employees spend hours evaluating the water's cosmetic qualities. They take their job seriously — and sometimes disagree on their findings.

"Some of you don't have taste," water quality supervisor Ron Kidd joked to a group of employees at the district's Bluffdale water-treatment plant as a debate circled around whether sample No. 1 had a musty, bitter or metallic taste.

Sample No. 1 was in a beaker on the table and had been sniffed, sipped and analyzed by 11 people, but it was hard to give the water an accurate reading.

"This is not a science," Kidd said, "it's an art form."

It was through that art form that the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District chose two samples of water that swept the first Intermountain Section American Water Works Association taste test in September. The district's sample of water from the Willow Creek well beat 12 other samples submitted from treatment plants in Provo, Logan, Park City, the Central Utah Water Conservancy District and Pocatello, Idaho.

Now the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District will advance to a national taste test competition in Georgia in June — and hold some major local bragging rights in the meantime.

"I was pretty confident in our wells, but I wasn't as confident in our surface water," said Shazelle Terry, Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District treatment department manager, of the district's win. "The thing about taste that I think is very interesting is, what tastes good is what you're used to, unless it's really bad or there's a distinct taste. More often than not, (tasting water) is fairly subjective, and it can be fairly subtle."

Water treatment facilities often go to great lengths to make their water taste good — down to adding reverse-osmosis, ozone and ultra-violet treatments — but Terry says her district still occasionally receives complaints about the water.

"At different times of the year, the reservoir can ... mix and bring up sediments from the bottom and give it a different taste," Terry said. "Sometimes people can pick up on that."

Occasionally, if water has too much calcium or magnesium the substance will taste bad. Some surface waters can develop earthy or musty tastes from algae and bacteria in the water, but Terry emphasizes those different flavors are not a sign of spoiled water.