Water and wastewater manual available now in 22nd edition
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* Charlotte Tucker

Walk in to just about any water or wastewater management office and it is likely there is a copy of the “Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater” somewhere on the shelves.

Now, with the release of the 22nd edition in January, water utilities and others have access to the most up-to-date, peer-reviewed information about keeping the water supply clean.

“‘Standard Methods’ is essentially considered the bible of the water and wastewater community,” said Andy Eaton, PhD, vice president of MWH Laboratories and a member of the book’s editorial board. “These are tried and true methods that are applicable for assessing everything from process control to compliance for waters and wastewaters.”

The book contains what the preface describes as “the best available, generally accepted procedures for analyzing water, wastewater and related materials. They represent the recommendations of specialists, ratified by a large number of analysts and others of more general expertise, and as such are truly consensus standards, offering a valid and recognized basis for control and evaluation.”

The first edition of “Standard Methods” was published in 1905 and has been updated over the decades to include methodology improvements and an enlarged scope. The 21st edition was published in 2005.

The major change to the 22nd edition involves clarifying the quality control practices in the manual. Sections of the introduction were rewritten, and detailed quality control sections were added throughout the manual. Almost half of the sections were updated with additional quality control steps.

![Figure1](http://www.thenationshealth.org/https://www.thenationshealth.org/content/nathealth/42/1/2.2/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.thenationshealth.org/content/42/1/2.2/F1)

“This is the major change we’re making in this edition,” Eaton said.

“Old editions relied more on assuming that analysts knew the quality assurance requirements, but the ‘Standard Methods’ is being used more and more for compliance monitoring,” he told *The Nation’s Health*.

The book is intended for an audience of water and wastewater utilities, commercial laboratories, regulators and others with an interest in the topic.

“Standard Methods” is prepared and published jointly by APHA, the American Water Works Association and Water Environment Federation.

According to the book’s preface, “Standard Methods” began as the result of a movement in the 1880s to ensure more uniform and efficient methods to analyze water. Then APHA sponsored an 1895 convention of bacteriologists to discuss the need for better methods to examine bacteria in water.

In 1899, APHA appointed a Committee on the Standard Methods of Water Analysis that was charged with extending standard procedures to all methods involved in the analysis of water. That committee’s report constituted the first edition of the book.

Even government agencies have weighed in on the importance of “Standard Methods.” In 2007, Eaton said, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Wastewater published what was known as the update rule. In that regulation, EPA eliminated many of its own methods and defaulted to the information contained in “Standard Methods.”

For more information or to order “Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 22nd edition,” visit [www.aphabookstore.org](http://www.aphabookstore.org).

*   Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association