Page 61 - Fundamentals of Water Treatment Unit Processes : Physical, Chemical, and Biological

16 Fundamentals of Water Treatment Unit Processes: Physical, Chemical, and Biological

BOX 1.3 (continued) GLOBALIZATION OF
and set in motion the movement, which had continuing
THE WATER INDUSTRY AND CONSULTING
momentum through the 1970s, and was more or less
ENGINEERING
dissipated by the 1980s, perhaps as the political climate
becoming involved in music, publishing, TV and films, was changing; at the same time, the movement was gain-
telecoms, environmental services, etc. The name was ing ground in other countries. A series of laws and
changed in 1998 to Vivendi Universal. The environ- policies grew out of the movement, however, along
mental services include the divisions of water, waste, with public funding for research, education, and man-
energy, and transportation, and were active in over 100 dates for cleaning up the environment and an associated
countries. Water customers number about 110 million. flourishing of environmental engineering practice. Also,
The creation of Thames Water and the expansion of during this period, i.e., in the early 1960s, doctorates
Compagnie Generale portended fundamental change in became a requisite for academics in engineering and the
the character of consulting engineering. The ‘‘client’’ number of graduate programs expanded beyond
became a ‘‘customer,’’ something not thinkable until the ‘‘handful’’ that had existed up to about 1960. Funding
the 1980s. for research was appropriated by the U.S. Congress and
In the United States, the way had been paved legally the chances for funding was higher in 1960s than in later
for this ‘‘new age’’ institutional form, i.e., a multinational decades. The result was a science-based understanding of
conglomerate. In 1972, the U.S. Justice Department many of the unit processes that was translated toward a
forced ASCE, under consent decree, to change its code more rational practice. Some of the processes that were
of ethics to permit bidding for services and to permit delineated in scientific terms included the concept of an
advertising. The upshot was that during the 1980s, bid- activated-sludge basin as a ‘‘reactor,’’ and the associated
ding for design services became the norm for some materials-balance depiction; reaction rates described in
clients (not all joined this trend). To compete in the terms of ‘‘kinetics’’; the adoption of the Michaelis–
new market place, some of the larger consulting engin- Menten description of bacterial kinetics; the assimilation
eering firms formed subsidiary companies to construct of biochemistry in understanding biological reactions and
and operate plants. The traditional engineer–client rela- the role of ATP as well as DNA; the assimilation of
tionship was being replaced by ‘‘turnkey’’ projects based turbulence theory in understanding coagulation and floc-
on bidding. With this institutional metamorphosis, U.S. culation; the introduction of chemical equilibrium theory
engineering firms were then poised to compete globally and its application as a basis for understanding processes,
with Thames Water and Compagnie Generale des Eaux. e.g., in coagulation, redox reactions, precipitation, acid–
Professional practice was no longer protected by ethics, base reactions, ion exchange, etc.; the assimilation of
tradition, and law. Engineering services were not the physical chemistry as a basis for understanding the role
same; they were becoming a commodity. of temperature on reaction rate, the mechanisms of
molecular adsorption on activated carbon, the laws for
gas transfer, the role of osmotic pressure in membrane
desalination, etc.; anaerobic reactions became understood
in terms useful for practice. In addition, the ‘‘Advanced
Waste Treatment Research’’ program was initiated in
BOX 1.4 GOLDEN AGE OF
1962 by the Division of Water Supply and Pollution
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
Control, USPHS, which included processes such as
Almost every field has a ‘‘golden age,’’ perhaps charac- adsorption, electrodialysis, distillation, reverse osmosis,
terized by the nostalgia of those who reminisce. In ion exchange, etc., with funding for both in-house and
October 1957, the then Soviet Union launched into orbit extramural projects. The program also contributed to the
the earth satellite Sputnik. This event electrified the world changing paradigm of the field, i.e., from empiricism to
and shocked the United States in almost every respect. science.
One could easily view Sputnik moving across the skies The research during the 1960s was, to a large extent,
relative to the field of stars as tangible evidence that the ‘‘unsolicited,’’ meaning that a professor could propose
United States was not so advanced as presumed; the view the topic and the approach; the ‘‘peer-review’’ scrutiny
evoked deep emotions. The upshot was introspective was the basis for quality control. This contrasted with
questioning of the adequacy of U.S. education, science, the approach after 1972 when EPA was formed and
mathematics, and engineering. The result was the unpre- research funding had to ‘‘support regulations.’’ The
cedented funding of these areas, perhaps epitomized by research objectives were formulated by persons within
the 1961 commitment of President Kennedy to ‘‘place a a given agency, which greatly limited continued pro-
man on the moon within this decade.’’ At the same time, gress in applying fundamental knowledge to applica-
an environmental movement was in a period of gestation. tions. The National Science Foundation, however,
In 1962, Rachael Carson’s Silent Spring was published remained a traditional unsolicited research organization,