BOOK REVIEWS/CRITIQUES DE LIVRES

Handbook of land treatment systems for industrial and municipal wastes

Received June 18, 1986 Manuscript accepted October 3, 1986

Handbook of land [recument systerns for inclu.stria1 atzd rnut~icipal wastes. By S. C. Reed and R. W. Crites. Noyes Publications, Park Ridge, NJ, U.S.A. 1984. 427 p. $45.00 U.S.

Can. J Civ. En:: 14. 1-12 (1987)

The purpose of the book is to present the criteria and pro- cedures needed for the complete design of municipal and industrial wastes land treatment systems. The authors have observed that many of the standard engineering design text- books in waste treatment mention land treatment only in pass- ing, if at all. The objective of their book is to provide waste- water treatment specialists with a complete description of the land treatment alternative and the steps required to evaluate and design the system.

The book covers all of the aspects critical to the land treat- ment system, from effluent pretreatment and storage to pre- liminary sprinkler design and monitoring. Three types of land treatment systems are addressed: slow rate, overland flow, and rapid infiltration. Owing to the breadth of the subject matter, some aspects are treated somewhat superficially.

The authors' focus on the important subject of limiting design factors. In this respect, the interaction between soil and wase characteristics, such as biological exygen demand, sus- pended solids, pathogens, oil and grease, metals, nitrogen, phosphorus and salts, and trace organics, is addressed.

One chapter is essentially a short course in soil physics as i t relates to the performance and design of the three land treat- ment systems, while another foc~~ses on the role of vegetation in land treatment. The site features, such as soils, surficial geology, groundwater, and climatic condition, required for each of the three land treatment systems are completely cov-

ered, while one chapter is devoted entirely to methods cur- rently in use to assess these features.

The fundamentals of wastewater transmission and distribu- tion systems are described for each treatment system. The book contains one chapter on the preliminary design of each of the three wastewater land treatment systems, and the informa- tion provided is sufficient to develop an approximate capital cost estimate for each system.

Another chapter considers the operational, maintenance, and monitoring requirement for the systems, which is very important when considering alternative waste treatment meth- ods.

In sumary, the authors should be commended for their very complete identification of the factors involved in land treat- ment of wastewaters. Their use of data on operating plants and land treatment systems lends credibility to the text. There is no doubt that the use of examples for problem solving is also helpful.

The book would be most useful to wastewater treatment specialists who are required to address a number of treatment alternatives at the preliminary stage.

D. N. GRAVELAND Motlalco Consultarlts,

#205, 740 - 4 t h Avetlue S . , Lethbridge, Alto. ,

C a n n c h TI J ON9

Civil engineering heritagewales and Western England

Received August 26. 1986 Manuscript accepted Octobcr 3, 1986

Civil erlgirleering herittrge-Wrr1e.s and Wester11 Etlglancl. Edited by W . J . Sivewright. Thomas Telford Ltd.. Telford House, P.O. Box 101, 26-34 Old Street, London EClP I J H , England. 1986. 230 p.

Can. J. Civ. Eng. 14, 142- 143 (1987)

The main content of this book consists of the listing and the description of heritage engineering sites. It is the second vol- ume of a series (the first volume dealt with heritage in Northern England) referring to historic structures in Great Britain.

Throughout the years the title area has been intensively industrialized, which, because of its continuous development, required the building of many types of engineering works. The eight regions in the area are dealt with, each in separate

chapters. The reader gets acquainted with heritage dating back as early as the first century A.D. when the Romans practised engineering for the installation of a health centre around the cavity springs at Bath. The Monnow masonry-arched, fortified tower bridge is one of the earliest structures, having been built in 1272.

Most of the works, however, were built in the period from the beginning of the 16th century to the present time. They

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