Industrial Wastes and Water Supplies

Abstract

This article is concerned principally with problems arising where the outlets for conveying liquid industrial wastes are intentionally designed for discharge into a watercourse, rather than sources characterized by unintentional periodic discharges of finished products, such as diesel fuel from a ruptured tank, acid from a valve failure, or gasoline from line leakage. The article recognizes the improbability, but always the possibility, of underground water contamination in using certain methods for properly disposing of liquid industrial wastes. In Illinois, there are no outlets conveying industrial‐waste effluents intentionally designed for discharge into aquifers capable of furnishing potable water; there are, however, installations where excessive subsurface seepage must be minimized.