Viewpoint – The Soviet View of the US Drinking Water Industry

Abstract

This article is a summary of some of the main points in a book, The Problems of Drinking Water Supply in the USA, published in the Soviet Union in 1983. The study served as the Soviet contribution to the scientific research conducted in connection with the International Drinking Water and Sanitation Decade. A second objective was to provide Soviet specialists with the first detailed information available in the Soviet Union about the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of US water supply and consumption, the economics of the US drinking water industry, the medical and biological characteristics of US drinking water quality standards, and the US federal regulatory policies regarding drinking water. The study also included a comparative analysis of the ways and means of securing the safety of drinking water in the USSR and the United States. Both authors are associated with the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow. Leonid I. Elpiner is a medical doctor with the Institute for Water Problems, and Vladimir S. Vasiliev is an economist with the Institute of USA and Canada Studies.