EDITORIAL
To treat or reuse, that is the choice Editor: James J . Morgan WASHINGTON EDITORIAL STAFF Managing Editor: Stanton S. Miller Assistant Editor. H. Martin Malin, Jr. Assistant Editor: Caroi Knapp Lewicke M ANUSCRI PT REV I EW I NG Associate Editor: Norma Yess MANUSCRIPT EDITING Associate Production Manager: Charlotte C. Sayre ART AND PRODUCTION Head: Bacil Guiley Associate Production Manager: Leroy L. Corcoran Art Director: Norman Favin Layout and Production: Dawn Leland Advisory Board: P. L. Brezonik, R . F. Christrnan, G. F. Hidy, David Jenkins, P. L. McCarty. Charies R. O'Melia. John H . Seinfeld. John W.Winchester Published by the AMERICAN CHEMiCAL SOCIETY 1155 16th Street, N.W Washington, D.C. 20036 Executive Director: Robert W . Cairns PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATION DIVISION Director: Richard L. Kenyon ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Centcom. Ltd. For offices and advertisers, see page 374 Piease send research manuscripts to Manuscript Reviewing feature manuscripts to Managing Editor For author s guide and editorial policy. see June 1972 issue page 523 or write Norma Yess Manuscript Reviewing Office In each paper with more than one author the name of the author to whom inquiries should be addressed carries a numbered footnote reference
Between now and hopefully by 1985, the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters will be eliminated, according to the national game plan P.L. 92-500. During the interim, industries and municipalities will have to improve the treatment and ultimately perfect the complete reuse and recycle of their waters. At what point does it become more economical to reuse than to treat and dispose? To what extent are municipalities and industries practicing reuse today? What industries, what municipalities are exemplary, setting the pace, and showing the way? This month's feature author Witmer calls attention to the fact that desalting technology, with suitable modification, can be used for water reuse applications. Sure, some of the equipment has been used in rather specialized and at the same ttme rather small-scale applications. In fact, most of the uses have been predicted on the goal of meeting water quality standards. Nevertheless, the age of large-scale deployment of such equipment is dawning. Witmer discussed promising technologies that both industries and municipalities may find useful for such purposes. Later this month, a symposium in Washington, D.C., on water reuse will be co-sponsored by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency. Only last month, WWEMA (the trade association for some 300 equipment manufacturers and suppliers) held its first conference on industrial waste water treatment in Chicago. Again, the reuse terms must be clarified. For example, reuse for the same process, reuse for another industry, or reuse for drinking water purposes. Eventually, attention must be paid to the problem of ultimate disposal-i.e., the residual left after the last drop of water has been recovered from the waste effluent. The name of the game is to treat, but the new emphasis on reuse will continue to become even more popular in the future.
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