Water and Wastewater Technology (5th Edition),   ISBN:9780130973252

Customer Rating: 

This book was used at Portland Community College for an Environmental Engineering sequence (2 Quaters).
Even though this book has introductory concepts of Chemistry, Biology, College Algebra and Fluid Mechanics I would highly recommend a term of "Freshman" 100 Level Chemistry, Biology and related topics in Physics.

The authors intend that the instructor (coursework) will follow the chapters in numerical order. If you have an instructor that skips around a lot it makes this book very unfriendly. It also helps greatly if the instructor provides field trips and lab work directly related to the chapter topics.

The authors covers the chapter topics very completely, however it is a very Dry Read. The example problems often leave out unit conversions. The publisher does not provide a student solutions manual, therefore making it very difficult to find errors made on chapter problems. Many of the images and pictures could be a lot better.
The authors do not present the under laying theory well because they expect the reader to be moderately versed in the math and science aspects.
The authors do a good job explaining the physical processes of water and wastewater treatment.

I feel that I gained a lot of knowledge from this book and there are not any other choices that provide the overview of processes and theory all in one book.
This is NOT a book you want to buy new. Buy It Used. If you are studying this topic for yourself buy an Older Edition.

Customer Rating: 

This was the text for my environmental engineering class at Cooper Union (Fall 2002).

Speaking from my own experience and that of many of my classmates, this book is highly frustrating to use and is a poor learning tool all around. Solutions to example problems often have no units shown in intermediate steps, leaving you to guess. The writing often deteriorates into recitations of mind-numbing laundry lists of the numerical particularities of a given topic. The book rarely gives the reader a good, gut feeling for what's actually going on in a process under consideration.

A complete rewrite in collaboration with a skilled technical writer is suggested. More sample problems are needed. Mr. Hammer is no doubt exceptionally experienced as an environmental engineer, but his pedagogical skills as evidenced by this book simply don't make it.

Basic things like key words and concepts should be incorporated. Graphics, which are generally poor and sometimes illegible should be improved and expanded upon. An earlier 2nd edition by Wiley that I came upon at the library was actually better than Prentice-Hall's current low budget 4th edition, which is the one my class used.

In short, avoid this book, either Wiley's 2nd edition or Prentice-Hall's 4th. I'm currently scouting around for a replacement, so that I can actually learn what it was I was supposed to have learned.

Customer Rating: 

This is an excellent book to read if you want to learn about wastewater treatment or just if you want to refresh your knowledge of this theme. The book presents easy to follow examples in many of the topics, say, clarifiers design (primary, intermediate, final), Aeration basins, etc. I prefer this book rather than Viessman & Hammer because it is much more friendly. I have not check yet the part of the book corresponding to water treatment, but the wastewater part is very good.