The environmental science of drinking water /

The first 140 pages of this book contain a qualitative survey of drinking water, including sources, contaminants, standards, and treatment technologies. The following 90 pages survey toxicology and risk assessment. These sections are written at a low technical level, suitable for introductory purposes. The last 135 pages consist of appendixes including lists of pollutants regulated under various regimes and data on occurrences of contaminants. Two of the authors are with an environmental-litigation consulting firm; these would not distinguish this book. What does is stated in the guest-authored foreword: ". . . the current approach to water quality management ... is not sustainable, and cannot achieve its avowed goals because of an intractable complexity." The book seizes on the uncertainties in risk assessment and regulatory inertia to suggest that current protections are inadequate. As an alternative, they propose replacing water quality standards with "treatment techniques (TT)-based standards." It is not clear exactly what is meant by this, as no concrete examples are given. ^BSumming Up: Optional. General readers; professionals. D. A. Vaccari Stevens Institute of Technology