AWWA JAW57842

Small systems face numerous obstacles to treating and deliveringhigh-quality drinking water. Many small waterproviders have never had the financial or operational capabilityto solve water quality and compliance problems, and theircustomers have often had to put up with poor-quality drinkingwater that does not meet regulatory standards.Central treatment and distribution may not be feasible formany small systems. Given that <1% of treated water is actuallyingested, treating all of the water in a system to optimal drinkingwater specifications does not represent a practical use ofresources, especially in light of increasingly stringent regulations,higher costs of excess treatment of water that will not beingested, water quality deterioration and losses during distribution,and reduced access to high-quality source water. In a two-tiersystem, only the small percentage of water that is consumedis treated to the highest quality.The use of bottled water or point-of-use and point-of-entryapproaches in a decentralized, two-tier system represents anopportunity for small communities to achieve safer and higher-qualitydrinking water than they might otherwise have had, morequickly and at reasonable cost. Although compliance obstaclesmust be overcome, applications currently in use are proving to besuccessful and are providing data that will help determine futureguidelines for operation, regulation, and compliance. Includes 29 references, tables, figures.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. 95 - No. 4

Published:

04/01/2003

Number of Pages:

14

File Size:

1 file , 380 KB