Standards for Treated Industrial Wastes    .
,     ,. .   ' F-   B.   MILLIGAN   :'•,,¦'.
Industrial Wastes Division Engineer, Department of Health Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
When a factory discharges polluting industrial wastes to public waters and the head of the establishment is approached on the subject of corrective measures, his initial reaction more often than not is to ask: "What do the people want? Fishing or industry?" The answer is "Both!" And that is a fully realizable objective in all but a very few cases. Decent public water supplies, clean streams for fishing and recreation, acceptable sources of industrial supplies—all may be had from the water resources of this country without breaking the backs of those industries which in many instances have been using the public streams as private sewers. ; : ;r s
The demand for clean streams, which has been particularly wide¬ spread during recent years, comes not only from fishermen and con¬ servationists but also with mounting emphasis from industry itself and is based on a long-overdue awareness that water supplies must be preserved and reclaimed. Water, like lumber, iron, topsoil and most other natural resources, is limited in quantity. The supply of under¬ ground water is becoming so reduced that legislation is being considered in several states for licensing the commercial use of wells and requiring the return of used well water, after treatment if necessary, to its under¬ ground sources. The depletion of sources and the pollution of surface supplies make clean stream programs necessary.
SCOPE   OF   THIS   PAPER
In this paper some principal reasons will be outlined for establishing standards for treated industrial wastes which for brevity may be called "effluent standards"; the place such standards fill in a large-scale stream clearance program will be defined; the relation of effluent to stream quality standards will be considered briefly and the effluent standards thus far adopted by those states which use them will be described. Because the writer is a Pennsylvanian and a member of the Department of Health of that Commonwealth,  Pennsylvania's standards and the
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