"Securing and maintaining an adequate supply of water has been one of the essential factors in the development of human settlements. The earliest developments were primarily concerned with the quantity of water available. Increasing population, however, has exerted more pressure on limited high-quality surface sources, and the contamination of water with municipal, agricultural, and industrial wastes has led to a deterioration of water quality in many other sources. At the same time, water quality regulations have become more rigorous, analytical capabilities for detecting contaminants have become more sensitive, and the general public has become both more knowledgeable and more discriminating about water quality. Thus, the quality of a water source cannot be overlooked in water supply development. In fact, virtually all sources of water require some form of treatment before potable use. Water treatment can be defined as the processing of water to achieve a water quality that meets specified goals or standards set by the end user or a community through its regulatory agencies. Goals and standards can include the requirements of regulatory agencies, additional requirements set by a local community, and requirements associated with specific industrial processes. The evolution of water treatment practice has a rich history of empirical and scientific developments and challenges met and overcome. The primary focus of this book is the application of water treatment for the production of potable, or drinking, water on a municipal level. Water treatment, however, encompasses a much wider range of problems and ultimate uses, including home treatment units, community treatment plants, and facilities for industrial water treatment with a wide variety of water quality requirements that depend on the specific industry. Water treatment processes are also applicable to remediation of contaminated groundwater and other water sources and wastewater treatment when the treated wastewater is to be recycled for new uses. The issues and processes covered in this book are relevant to all of these applications"-- Provided by publisher