Government Requirements and Professional Standards: Fid-Bau Portal

Government Requirements and Professional Standards

Mercer, Kenneth L. / Whipple, George C.

George Chandler Whipple was the Gordon McKay Professor of Sanitary Engineering at Harvard University and co‐founder of the Harvard School of Public Health in the early 1900s. Writing at a time when the idea of federal water quality standards was initially becoming accepted, Whipple supported the idea that drinking water quality should ultimately be determined by professional standards more so than government regulations, in part because the latter sets the bar too low (minimum requirements tend to become maximum practice). In addition, Whipple proposed to establish different grades of water purity, and in doing so he outlines the criteria for quality (e.g., color, turbidity, taste, odor, chemical analysis, bacterial content) that are the basis for modern water standards. Whether or not you agree with his perspective on the role of government in determining water quality standards, you have to admire his faith in water professionals as demonstrated in his argument that maintaining high standards of quality should be a matter of pride as opposed to the result of government directives ‐ if only we were all so good.