Safe Versus Clean

This month's cover story highlights the importance of communication in the water industry. More than ever, the public is interested in and understands the issues water systems face, including new regulations, novel technologies, and higher expectations of quality and reliability. Effective communication begins with a shared vocabulary, so it's important that water professionals are clear with the words they use to reinforce trust and protect public health. Fundamental to this is the delineation between clean water and safe water.

Within the overall water cycle, the dichotomy at the heart of the water industry is drinking water and wastewater, with water reuse acting as the bridge between them (intentional or not). While a one-water approach seeks to manage them holistically, international approaches differ in their specifics as countries balance their specific water needs with their available resources.

The United States provides a good example of how the differences between clean water and safe water can be codified. The Clean Water Act (CWA) came first, focusing on preventing pollution of waterways and protecting the “chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters.” The goal of the CWA was to treat point sources of pollution before they are released into the environment, reducing levels of toxic pollutants so the discharge causes no damage.

Besides protecting sensitive ecologies, this clean water should be good enough for humans (and their pets) to swim in—but if you get a mouthful, you shouldn’t drink it, because even though it may look and smell okay, clean water is not safe water. At the same time, the CWA acts as a measure of source water protection for downstream drinking water applications, so besides reuse there are still many connections.

The United States marked the 50th anniversary of its Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) this year. The SDWA establishes national drinking water standards and requires that public water systems regularly test for contaminants, report the results to their customers, and address any deficiencies when they arise. The SDWA provides health-based drinking water standards so that consumers trust that wherever they are, water from the tap is safe to drink as well as for cooking and washing.

While it's easy to understand when water is clean enough to swim in, there tend to be disagreements on what makes water safe enough to drink. The SDWA doesn’t define what safe water is, but within the concept there remains some element of risk. The water industry's approaches continue to evolve as understanding of health and environmental risks grows, but in the end, water professionals must rely on health and medical professionals to establish the criteria that safe water must meet.

Please share your insights into safe water, clean water, water reuse, and stormwater with other water professionals by publishing in Journal AWWA; contact me with your ideas at [email protected].