Because the commodity which the public water supply industry distributes is, in its natural state, corrosive to the metallic equipment and installations used to produce and transport it, it becomes a natural necessity that steps be taken either to reduce the corrosivity of the product or to protect the equipment and installations from corrosion.
It may be termed an anomaly that the conditions under which water supply is delivered are predominately affected by the use to which only a minor fraction of the production is put. The one-half gallon per day which each consumer of the water utility’s product may drink or use in his food, governs to a major extent the methods used to produce the supply and to bring it to that consumer in a state of safety.
Added to safety is the requirement that the taste and odor of the product be inoffensive to the person who...
