Nassau County Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) always receives a flood of requests for her presence at various functions and her curiosity was whetted when an invitation arrived asking her to be one of three judges for the 16th Annual “Best Tasting Long Island Tap Water” contest at Farmingdale State University.

“While I did feel a bit slighted at not being asked to judge last year, that’s all water under the bridge now,” said Jacobs. “This year’s contest sounded like a wonderful new experience so I felt I should dive right in.”

The competition was between the winners of the Long Island Water Conference’s countywide contests, which were held this past May. Nassau’s countywide winner was the Plainview Water District, which attempted today to deep six 2003 Long Island Titleholder Greenlawn Water District, the Suffolk 2004 winner.

The blind taste test put the judges under tremendous pressure (water pressure?). Jacobs did not flounder in her decision-making, sampling each glass several times. There was a whirlpool of discussion among the judges with the final tide of opinion favoring the Greenlawn Water District, 2 to 1.

“This experience has given me a real thirst to participate in other judging contests,” said Jacobs.