Eight revolutions in the history of US drinking water disinfection

摘要

Several histories of US drinking water disinfection have been compiled (Haas, 1999; White, 1999; NAS, 1987; Baker, 1981; White, 1981; NAS, 1980; NAS, 1977). Many of these focus on small pieces of the entire disinfection story, and others are necessarily limited in the time period covered. This article organizes disinfection history since the 1881 founding of AWWA into a construct of eight disinfection "revolutions"—events or series of events that so changed the practice of disinfection in the United States that it was never again the same. Some of these revolutions are historical curiosities that occurred before most readers of this article were even born. In other cases, the drinking water community is still feeling the direct effects of past revolutions or is in the middle of revolutions with no clear outcomes.