The Effects of Heat on Water Quality
BENJAMIN C. DYSART, III, Sanitary Engineer
Union Carbide Company
Columbia, Tennessee
PETER A. KRENKEL, Associate Professor & Director
of Sanitary and Water Resources Engineering
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
INTRODUCTION
There are many legitimate and well defined uses for our water resources --
including domestic and industrial consumption, recreation, power generation,
waste assimilation and navigation. As water use for all purposes increases, we
are becoming more and more cognizant of the relatively fixed supply of surface
water and the revolution taking place in its quality. The population of the nation
is rapidly increasing, as is its economy and technology. This increase is causing
at least a proportional rise in all of the usages of water.
Water used for any purpose causes an inherent lowering of water quality. In
the past, varying degrees of treatment of domestic and industrial effluents for organic pollution in conjunction with the natural purification which occurs in the
receiving waters have generally maintained satisfactory levels of water quality.
However, certain areas exist where great population and/or industrial densities,
coupled with inadequate treatment, have overloaded the assimilative capacity of
the receiving waters. As industry expands and becomes more diversified tomeet
the demanc for more and newer products and services, and as the standard of
living of our growing population rises, the amount and kinds of pollution being
discharged to our receiving water are correspondingly increasing.
The prospect of continuous and more serious degradation by pollution and
misuse is causing an increasing public awareness of water quality changes. Polluted water must be treated to render it acceptable for domestic consumption or
industrial processes. Obviously, a greater degree of pollution requires a greater
degree of treatment and corresponding expense. Since water is an essential raw
material in nearly all manufacturing operations, and necessary for the maintenance of life, it is of great importance that its initial quality be such that treatment costs are not prohibitive. The development of water quality problems are
usually due to inadequate treatment, and it is only equitable that each user
should return used water to the receiving water in such condition that no damage
will accrue to a subsequent user.
It should be emphasized that waste carriage and assimilation should be an
accepted beneficial use of watercourses. This premise being accepted, a user
should treat his waste to such an extent that it will be satisfactorily assimilated
by the time it reaches the next downstream user without overtaxing the waste assimilative capacity of the stream. The proximity of other users, the type of
waste, characteristics of stream flow, and other uses of the stream, should govern
the amount of treatment required prior to discharge into the receiving water.
It is obvious that the natural waste assimilative capacity of the stream must
not be exceeded if the best employment is to be made of our water resources.
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