ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the sources of these uncertainties and the potential for increased reliability based on emerging experimental technology. Even in that "purest" of experimental disciplines, physics, the famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle reminds us that there are always limits to the ability to deterministically describe and measure physical systems. Perhaps the central uncertainty problem is the inability to sample and characterize a dynamic microbial system for the microbial structure at an instant in time. Predictions of the performance and fate of chemicals in mixed-culture microbial wastewater treatment systems have been notoriously inexact. The design and performance of full-scale systems may not be reliable, and more costly treatment options may be chosen in light of these uncertainties. Treatment leading to disposal or reuse of such waters often requires the removal of these compounds, and biological treatment is often considered. Research has often followed the lines of classical microbiology, with emphasis on pure cultures of isolates from mixed environmental populations.
