The Q7A expert working group had extensive discussions over a number of meetings around the world about the quality of water, and the final wording recognizes that in many circumstances there was not a good justification to expect more than potable water quality. We considered a lot of issues and opinions when developing this language, but the bottom line here is whenever you’re asking about the quality of water, you always have to ask what is the water being used for? If you’re using potable water at a very early process step, its impact may be minimal, even if you’re using it at a later processing step, its impact may be minimal. As per Section 4.3, the manufacturer basically needs to determine that the quality of water they’re using at any particular step is suitable for its intended purpose.
