1979), must be addressed. Degradation of the environment and the advent of 

 the ecologic catastrophe must be prevented. The biosphere is a single, 

 integral system (Bernadskiy 1967). 



The surface waters of rivers, lakes, reservoirs, seas and oceans receive 

 tremendous quantities of various chemical compounds today, for which no pre- 

 cise accounting can be made. Apparently, there are several thousand such 

 substances, and each year increasing numbers of substances are dumped, cre- 

 ating chemical pollution of the environment. The powerful inflow of pollu- 

 tants changes the environment of aquatic organisms, as a result of which 

 the quality of water decreases and the biologic productivity of commercial 

 organisms is reduced. It is quite obvious that mankind cannot simply con- 

 tinue polluting his waters unchecked, but it is also impossible to exclude 

 reservoirs and streams from the circle of human economic activity. The only 

 proper path for establishment of the interrelationship of society with 

 nature is efficient utilization of nature, designed to continue over many 

 years. We must not simply protect or simply utilize without control the 

 waters of surface reservoirs and streams, but rather we must utilize them 

 efficiently and in a multiple use fashion, i.e., by many water users. In 

 connection with these new tasks, the need arises to develop principles for 

 estimation of water quality in reservoirs and evaluation of their normal 

 state. 



All reservoirs and streams undergo changes over a period of years in ac- 

 cordance with changes in climate, geologic-geographic variation and other 

 changes, not related to the effects of human factors. Therefore, we must 

 develop criteria which can be used to maintain reservoirs and streams in a 

 state satisfying the needs of man. If man is not considered, any body of 

 water is in its normal state, i.e., it corresponds to the surrounding con- 

 ditions. Only man, based on his own needs, makes an evaluation as to 

 whether the reservoir is in a normal or pathologic state. The time has 

 come for regulated interrelationships between human society and nature. 

 The need has arisen to develop principles and standards for estimating the 

 quality of reservoirs, establishing limits of permissible changes in water 

 quality and, finally, formulating requirements for man - that which he must 

 not do with natural water. 



Noted elsewhere (Stroganov 1977), in a work on the concepts of the norm 

 and pathology in water toxicology, is a new approach to the solution of the 

 problem at hand. Hydrobiologists cannot limit themselves to a simple 

 description of what occurs in a reservoir following chemical pollution. An 

 "engineering" method of thinking is required, i.e., we must first formulate 

 how the body of water should be, then how this end can be achieved. 



In order to formulate how a body of water should be, we must select 

 principles, in accordance with which we can develop the necessary water 

 quality indexes. 



Based on the historic relationships between the abiotic medium of reser- 

 voirs and the hydrobiologic processes occurring in them, to which man has 

 now been added, several principles can be formulated. These principles 

 must lie at the base of the development of standards regulating the quality 



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