The Projected Change in the Development of Specifications and Guides Describing Water Quality Over the Next Ten Years

The promulgation of specifications and guides describing different types of water quality will be expanded significantly during the next decade because of an increased emphasis on a need for limiting impurities in water. This includes water which is required for industrial and laboratory use, as well as an increase in the interest in the health effects of impurities in water and a requirement for the limitation of types of pollutants being discharged to waste. In the past the ASTM Subcommittee on specifications has been mainly interested in limiting the impurities in water to be used for specific laboratory or industrial purposes. Because of the importance of ASTM as a highly respected consensus standards organization, the subcommittee will be called upon to develop specifications and guides related to water, not only for the traditional limitations required by industrial users, but perhaps more importantly because of a need for guides for a limit on various impurities in industrial waste waters.