AMES, Iowa — Ames won the Best Tasting Water in Iowa Award and the People’s Choice Award at the Iowa Section – American Water Works Association annual conference recently in Coralville.

John Dunn, the Director of the Ames Water and Pollution Control Department, said the taste of water relies on the minerals in it.

“It’s really about the minerals, the parts of the water. That’s really what imparts the taste. It’s whatever those minerals are that are in the water,” Dunn said.

Ames gets its water from an aquifer, compared to other cities like Des Moines, which uses the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers for its drinking water.