Water, water everywhere?

摘要

When eighteenth-century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote the verse "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink" in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," he undoubtedly had no idea how true those words would ring to twentieth-century drinking water suppliers. Although most ol the planet is composed of water, only a tiny percentage of it is suitable to become drinking water. Thus, suppliers must develop new water sources when feasible and continuously protect existing ones. One water source that is getting current attention is reclaimed wastewater. In this issue, Crook and colleagues report on the findings of a National Research Council committee that evaluated potable reuse of reclaimed water. The committee concluded that direct potable reuse is not a viable option for utilities seeking to augment drinking water supplies. But indirect potable reuse is if (1) development of new water sources, non-potable reuse, and other forms of conservation have been evaluated and rejected as technically or economically impossible; and (2) cautionary measures—contaminant monitoring, health and safety testing, and system reliability evaluation—are given priority.