Conclusions 



summary 

 and key criteria 



The Subcommittee has reached the following 

 conclusions regarding the water quality character- 

 istics and requirements for industrial supplies. 



(1) The quality characteristics of the water 

 supply for an established industry at a given site, if 

 allowed to deteriorate from the range usually ex- 

 perienced for those characteristics of significance 

 to that industry, can cause an undesirable increase 

 in the cost for treatment. On the other hand, an 

 improvement in the quality of the same supply 

 will not significantly decrease the cost of treatment 

 at an existing installation. 



(2) Marked variations in the quality of an in- 

 dustrial water supply can result in deterioration of 

 product quality for some industries. 



(3) The water quality requirements at the 

 point of use in each process in each industry as 

 distinguished from the quality characteristics at 

 the point of supply are generally well established 

 for each existing industrial process use. These 

 water quality requirements, however, vary consid- 

 erably even for the same process depending upon 

 the technological age of the design and other 

 factors. 



(4) The quantity of water employed for process 

 use by difl'erent plants in the same industry may 

 vary considerably between plants depending on the 

 cost of treatment, the age of the plant design, op- 

 erating practices, and the quality and quandty of 

 the available supply. 



TABLE V-1. Task Forces and Their 

 Assignments 



I steam generation and cool- 



ing. 



II Textile, lumber, paper, and 



allied products. 



III Chemicals and allied prod- 



ucts. 



IV Petroleum and coal products. 



V Primary metal industries „. 



VI Food and kindred products, 



and leather tanning and 

 finishing. 



All SIC codes 

 and electric 

 utilities. 



SIC 22, 24, 

 and 26. 



SIC 28. 



-SIC 29. 

 -SIC 33. 

 SIC 20 and 31. 



Industries considered 



The Subcommittee was subdivided into six task 

 forces. Task force I was concerned with water used 

 for cooling and steam generation for all industries. 

 Each of the other task forces was assigned one or 

 more industrial groups as defined by the 2-digit 

 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) coding 

 used by the Bureau of Census (6). Table V-1 

 lists the task forces and identifies the industrial 

 group or groups of concern. Additional detail on 

 the material considered is included in the sections 

 prepared by the several task forces. 



Although it has not been feasible to cover all 

 industries, the major users of water, including some 

 industries that require process waters having a wide 

 range of quality, have been considered. 



Water use 



The total water intake of both industrial manu- 

 facturing plants and investor-owned thermal elec- 

 tric utilities was approximately 49,000 billion gal- 



187 



