A Suggested Approach to the
Problem of Water Quality Standards
A. W. BUSCH, Professor of Environmental Engineering
Laboratory of Environmental Science and Engineering
Rice University
Houston, Texas
INTRODUCTION
The use of the word standards in preference to criteria is chosen for this discussion in concurrence with the practice of other writers on the subject (1, 2,3).
The key element in the definition of standard is the phrase "established by an
authority" where authority is in turn used in its legalistic rather than its expertise
sense.
The following remarks are intended to point out the equity limitations of
legislated standards, to suggest an alternate approach (primarily in practice), and
then to examine how this approach differs from actuality and reality.
The philosphy behind this proposal is that accelerated pollution abatement
efforts must be implemented and that while the "perfect" solution does not exist,
better ones will be found. In the meanwhile, our present technological capability
should be used in the most enlightened fashion possible without taking refuge in
standards or in long lived studies to set standards. Broad based legislation is proposed which would encourage immediate action or a flexible approach without
the rigidity of standards.
LIMITATIONS OF STANDARDS
Standards, whether set for effluents or for receiving bodies, are arbitrary,
technically difficult to defend and generally inadequate. However, the siren song
of numerical standards with their implied quantitative significance appeals to all;
to the legislator who calls for pollution abatement, to the citizen who appeals to
the legislator, to the regulatory agency responsible for establishment and enforcement, and to the "polluter" who must "have a basis for design. " Dispassionate
reflection reveals that standards are temporal; that which is adequate today will
inevitably be inadequate tomorrow. Unfortunately, the general public has the
impression that the passage of legislated standards will automatically insure the
quick abatement of pollution.
Standards set for receiving water quality imply sufficient knowledge of a
particular system to permit definition of the amount of "pollution" which can be
tolerated without diminishing quality below that defined by the standards. This
in turn implies that this "quantity of pollution" is to be somehow divided among
those cities and industries discharging their wastes into the system. Assuming this
distribution is made, sooner or later in our growing society, through municipal
growth or industrial expansion, the capacity of the system will be exceeded.
What then of the water quality standard?
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