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Purification And Sanitary Control Of Water (Potable And Waste), Paul W. Kabler

Public Health Resources

Although most of the streams draining inhabited regions are contaminated with human or animal feces, water-borne disease today in the United States is relatively uncommon. Pathogenic enteric microorganisms probably do not multiply in raw water sources under normal conditions. They usually disappear in a relatively short time, with the rates depending on variations in environmental conditions. Urban water supplies have played a diminishing role in the transmission of intestinal disease because of improvements in the detection and enumeration of pollution indicators, water and sewage treatment processes, and t h e sanitary control of water systems.