Description
The purpose of water treatment is to do whatever is necessary to render a raw water suitable for its intended use. Since both raw water qualities and intended uses vary, water treatment must be carefully tailored to fit individual situations. Even the most basic forms of water treatment require some operator time on a daily basis. More sophisticated plants may require almost constant attention. Thus, it behooves the designer of any water supply system, especially a small one, to give a great deal of attention to operational complexity when selecting water treatment techniques. From this viewpoint, the best treatment is no treatment at all. That is, the best approach is to locate a water source that requires no treatment. When the intended use is human consumption, regulatory requirements effectively limit such sources to existing water supply systems.