Consumer Perception and Choice of Drinking Water Quality

In planning for water supply, the influence of specialists, particularly engineers, is well established. Recently, however, the public’s faith in professional capability to assure safe drinking water has begun to be tried. Public confidence was tested in 1970 when the U.S. Public Health Service noted that only 59 percent of the surveyed systems produced water that met drinking water standards, and it was shaken when the Environmental Defense Fund (1974) released its study claiming the occurrence of carcinogens in New Orleans drinking water.