Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8. Does planning include steps to ensure elimination of waste, leak-
ages, and unauthorized consumption?
Note:
Industrywide operational experience has shown that the cost per
cubic foot, cubic meter, liter, or gallon of water delivered to the customer
has steadily increased because of manpower, automation, laboratory, and
treatment costs. To counter these increasing costs, treatment works must
meter consumers, measure the water supply flow, and evaluate the entire
system annually.
9. Does the water works or proposed water works physical plant
include adequate laboratory facilities to ensure proper monitoring
of water quality?
Note:
Some water works facilities routinely perform laboratory work;
however, water pollution control technologists must ensure that the water
works laboratory or other laboratory used is approved by the appropri-
ate health authority. Keep in mind that the laboratory selected to test
and analyze the waterworks samples must be able to analyze chemical,
microbiologic, and radionuclide parameters.
10. Are procedures in place to evaluate specific problems such as the
lead content in the distribution systems and at the consumer's faucet
or suspected contamination due to cross-connection potentials?
11. Is a cross-connection control program in place to make sure that
the distribution system (in particular) is protected from plumbing
errors and illegal connections that may lead to injection of nonpo-
table water into public or private supplies of drinking water?
12. Are waterworks operators and laboratory personnel properly
trained and licensed?
13. Are waterworks managers properly trained and licensed?
14. Are proper operating records and budgetary records kept?
Drinking Water Q and Q Vocabulary
As with any other technical presentation, understanding the information
presented is difficult unless a common vocabulary is established. Voltaire
said it best: “If you wish to converse with me, please define your terms.” We
define many key terms used in the text in this section, but other terms are
defined as they appear in the text. Before we define these key terms, however,
we must first define the key term that this text is all about:
drinking water
.
