The promulgation of specifications and guides describing different types of water quality will be expanded significantly during the next decade because of an increased emphasis on a need for limiting impurities in water. This includes water which is required for industrial and laboratory use, as well as an increase in the interest in the health effects of impurities in water and a requirement for the limitation of types of pollutants being discharged to waste. In the past the ASTM Subcommittee on specifications has been mainly interested in limiting the impurities in water to be used for specific laboratory or industrial purposes. Because of the importance of ASTM as a highly respected consensus standards organization, the subcommittee will be called upon to develop specifications and guides related to water, not only for the traditional limitations required by industrial users, but perhaps more importantly because of a need for guides for a limit on various impurities in industrial waste waters.

Because the users of the specifications and guides will come from all areas of industry, the development of the specifications will, of necessity, have to be flexible and will thus be classified as “Guides” in most all cases instead of as “Specifications”. By officially designating the physical and chemical characteristics of the various types of water as “Guides” instead of “Specifications”, the user of the guides will have some options available depending upon his particular circumstance and upon the terminology used in the guides. He will find the guides more useful than specifications which would provide a set of parameters which would be an entity etched in stone.

The guides to be developed during the 90's will be divided into various categories based upon the different scopes which will be drawn up to limit various impurities based upon the end industrial use, the health effects, and the environmental impact of the water being considered.