Special report: What’s in your drinking water?

Water is the source of life and in Central Oregon. It’s also the source of beer.

“Water is extremely important to the brewing process,” said Brian Faivre, brewmaster with Deschutes Brewery.

The quality of our water helps to explain why Bend has the highest number of craft breweries per capita in the nation.

“What brewers usually talk about is it’s soft in nature so from a brewing standpoint we get a clean slate to work with,” Faivre said.

But it’s not just breweries benefiting from Bend’s water.

“The water in Bend, Oregon, is probably the single most important ingredient to the Crater Lake line of spirits,” said Alan Dietrich, CEO of Bendistillery.

Dietrich said the company made test batches with water from different communities.

“Even with water from communities that have really good water, it doesn’t compare,” Dietrich said.

The reason why our water is so good starts at the source. But before you can take a sip out of your tap, the water has to be treated and tested.

The water travels from the Bridge Creek water source and is first screened for larger debris, then held in reservoirs with chlorine.

“That’s where the disinfection process takes places and kills of bacteria,” said Steven Prazak, water quality manager for the city of Bend.

However, chlorine does not kill off everything that could be bad.

“We have found cryptosporidium in our surface water,” said Rod Mingus, utilities water operations supervisor for the city.

The federal government says cryptosporidium poses a health concern.

“Cryptosporidium wasn’t really on the public’s consciousness, or the regulators’ consciousness until there were outbreaks that actually killed people,” said Drexell Barnes, laboratory supervisor for the city.

The new water filtration plant in Bend cost $56 million and is set to start operation in April. It’s going to filter out cryptosporidium. Up until the new regulations started, the city used treated but unfiltered water.

“I haven’t seen any waterborne illnesses in the city of Bend,” Mingus said.

To make sure it stays that way, the water is tested every week.

“We’re regulated to test the water for microbes, for chemicals,” Barnes said.

It’s a long list of items that need to be tested for. Some have to be checked for every week, others every few months or years.

Does that mean a contamination of the water like in Flint, Michigan could never happen in Bend?

“I won’t say there’s never a potential for this to happen in Bend. I don’t think it will happen in Bend. I think we’re very diligent in our operation,” Mingus said.