Bethlehem's water ranks among the best.

And the city has the hardware to prove it.

On Monday, Bethlehem's Director of Water and Sewer Resources David Brong accepted the city's fourth consecutive state award from the Department of Environmental Protection.

The Area Wide Optimization Program recognizes the state's top performing water treatment plants that optimize treatments beyond requirements.

Bethlehem's water filtration plant was built in 1995.

The city's water supply comes from surface sources and is stored in reservoirs in the Pocono Mountains.

Water leaves the filtration plant and travels through more than 500 mles of water lines to around 113,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Customers are in Bethlehem, Fountain Hill and Freemansburg, as well as parts of Allen, Bethlehem, Easet Allen, Hanover (Lehigh and Northampton), Lower Saucon, Salisbury and Upper Saucon townships.