According to voters at the Minnesota State Fair, Chaska has the best tasting tap water in the state.
As part of the annual “Best in Glass” competition, conducted by the Minnesota American Water Works Association, this year’s fairgoers voted for their favorite glass of water in a blind taste test. Chaska’s tap water beat out 21 other municipalities for the top award. Second place went to Shoreview. White Bear Township and St. Paul were the other top finishers.
The 2025 honor is the second time Chaska’s drinking water has been honored. The city first won the friendly competition in 2018. The city has been entering the bragging-rights competition at the State Fair for more than a decade.
“The honor was a surprise, just like it was in 2018,” Chaska’s Water and Sewer Director Matt Haefner said. “It’s an award that hopefully our guys are able to take pride in for the work that they do.”
Too often, news about city infrastructure can be negative, Haefner said, such as water main breaks, sewer backups and the like. It’s nice to be recognized for some positive news, he noted.
“We really take a lot of pride in producing a safe, quality drinking water for the customers here in town,” he said.
When asked what makes Chaska’s tap water an award winner, Haefner said he’s not exactly sure.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” he admitted.
The city pumps water from three different underground aquifers — the Mount Simon-Hinkley, Tunnel City/Wonowac and Jordan aquifers. Most of the water comes from the Mount Simon-Hinkley Aquifer, which is 800 feet under the earth’s surface, according to Haefner.
“So, it takes a long time to filter down and migrate through all of the rocks and different things,” he explained. “That’s how you get the pure state that it’s in. There’s been some studies done, and they believe that water (from the Mount Simon-Hinkley Aquifer) is thousands of years old.”
The city also sends the pumped water through an iron and manganese filtration system that helps purify the H2O even further, Haefner said.
“Our filters basically remove all of those contaminants,” Haefner explained.
In addition, the city keeps the chlorine levels in tap water as low as possible to kill bacteria and organisms but avoid making it taste like “pool water,” he added.
“We keep a very close eye on the levels,” he reported.
One challenge found in Chaska’s municipal system is the hardness of the water. Haefner says the hard water adds taste and favorable characteristics to the water, but it can cause a powdery buildup on plumbing fixtures, coffee makers, water filters and more. The hard water can be particularly challenging if a home’s or business’s water softener is beyond its useful life or not on the correct setting, he said.
“Oftentimes, people confuse hardness and water quality. They think our water isn’t necessarily great because of the hardness,” Haefner said. “But that’s not the case.”
