Environmental and Water Resources History

Environmental engineering is a relatively new name for a type of engineering that began in the United States in the 1830s. Under different names, it continued to evolve to satisfy environmental challenges posed by urbanization, suburbanization, and the other needs of the nation during the industrial revolution in the late 1800s through the information revolution of the 1990s. Until 1970, when Earth Day captured the public's attention leading to a concentrated effort to clean up the environment, the profession was practiced by but a few. Yet, the pioneers — Mills, Chesbrough, Sedgwick, Hazen, Metcalf, Eddy, Camp, Fair, Wolman, to name a few — blazed a trail establishing design protocols still in use today. Of necessity, this section is but a brief overview of the rich heritage on which modern environmental engineering is founded.

Diffused aeration is defined as the injection of air or oxygen enriched air under pressure below a liquid surface. Although the aeration of wastewater began in England as early as 1882, major advances in aeration technology awaited the development of the activated sludge process by Arden and Lockett in 1914. A review of the history of aeration technology is most interesting and instructive.

Sited on a marshy, level lake plain with small, sluggish natural rivers and streams, throughout its existence Chicago (chartered 1837) has been faced with a multitude of drainage and water-related public health challenges ranging from mid to late 19^th century typhoid, cholera, and dysentery epidemics, to latter day combined sewer overflow waterway pollution, overbank and sewer backup flooding, and lake beach closings due to contaminated river backups induced by severe rainstorms. These problems stem from Chicago's tremendous growth, which to varying degrees has continually strained and sometimes breached the natural and manmade water/wastewater infrastructure. The Sanitary District of Chicago (in 1989 renamed the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago) was created in 1889 to restore and maintain water-related public health by protecting Lake Michigan — the area's main drinking water supply — from sewage contamination. It did so in a pioneering way that captured the attention of the world, contributed to a Chicago reputation later verbalized as a positive "make no small plans" attitude, significantly advanced civil engineering and civil works construction technology and techniques, and helped spur other major earth moving projects elsewhere. As Chicago urbanized and industrialized further, and as environmental science and conscience heightened so as to recognize the need for higher water quality standards, new water management challenges arose which the District addressed, and continues to address, by undertaking a succession of other notable civil works efforts.

The historical development of the Darcy-Weisbach equation for pipe flow resistance is examined. A concise examination of the evolution of the equation itself and the Darcy friction factor is presented from their inception to the present day. The contributions of Chézy, Weisbach, Darcy, Poiseuille, Hagen, Prandtl, Blasius, von Kármán, Nikuradse, Colebrook, White, Rouse and Moody are described.

The history of the development of the open channel flow resistance equations is reviewed. A detailed discussion of Philippe-Gaspard Gauckler's contribution to the development of an open channel flow resistance equation is contrasted with the subsequent development of a similar equation by Robert Manning. Both men were practicing professional engineers and were desirous of a means of easily calculating the average stream velocity as a function of channel geometry, slope, and channel boundary characteristics. As practicing engineers, both were still conscious of the basic fundamental principle of fluid mechanics that today is called uniform steady flow. Both used the same data from Darcy and Bazin and arrived at a similar equation without the knowledge of each other's separate development. Consequently, recognition should be afforded to Philippe-Gaspard Gauckler by referring to the well known and popular open channel flow resistance equation known today as Manning's equation as the Gauckler-Manning's equation.

This paper provides a brief history of water distribution system modeling, starting with use of the Hazen-Williams equation and the Equivalent Pipe Method and continuing to the use of sophisticated computer models. Interesting historical perspectives are provided as well as insights into the application of the actual methods.

The Bureau of Reclamation, a bureau within the U.S. Department of the Interior, was established as the Reclamation Service in 1902. Its purpose was to settle the West by providing essential water supplies. Reclamation has accomplished that mission and now seeks to manage, develop, and protect water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public. Reclamation is celebrating 100 years of providing water to the western United States. It began its centennial on June 17, 2002, with an event at Hoover Dam, one of the bureau's most well-known, largest facilities. Approximately 2,200 people attended the event. Other events and exhibits will occur throughout the West during the centennial year. Reclamation's history program is an essential part of the bureau, providing an oral history program, a project history program, and other preservation tools. Much of this information is available to those interested in learning about the bureau's history.

The paper covers the history of Reclamation's hydraulic laboratory from its inception in 1930 at Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station, Fort Collins, Colorado to the present. Emphasis is placed on the laboratory's historical role in developing new design concepts for hydraulic structures to meet Reclamation's ever-increasing challenges over the past seventy years. The paper presents the design challenges associated with specific structures such as: Hoover Dam side channel spillway, Grand Coulee Dam spillway bucket, Hungry Horse Dam tunnel spillway, and more recently the aeration slot design developed for Reclamation's tunnel spillways to prevent cavitation damage. During the 1950's and 1960's Reclamation's hydraulic laboratory initiated an extensive research program to develop standard designs that eventually led to engineering monographs and manuals coauthored by hydraulic laboratory staff. The paper concludes with the hydraulic design challenges facing Reclamation in the next century. The water management issues associated with fish passage and water conservation as well as infrastructure security at numerous dams in the western U.S. are some of the hydraulic challenges in Reclamation's future.

Over the past 100 years the Bureau of Reclamation has made significant contributions to the advancement and evolution of concrete dam design, analysis, and construction. This paper chronicles some of those achievements.

The roles of public educational institutions in western water development make an interesting chapter in histories of the Plains and Mountain West. Colorado State University's programs evolved from their frontier beginning to have recognized global impact. Early history of mostly&engineering programs is described, and the university's response to need for interdisciplinary programs to address today's issues is explained.

This paper presents a overview of the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research (IIHR). The overview outlines IIHR's beginning as a single-room hydraulics laboratory in 1920, charts its growth, and describes its current research and educational prospects. Periods of development are discussed briefly in terms of IIHR's sequence of directors. Over time, the range of IIHR's research and educational activities has widened. It is intriguing, though, to observe that many of the opportunities IIHR currently faces are intrinsically the same opportunities that led to IIHR's founding. In particular, IIHR's research and educational activities continue to be motivated by the overall need to understand and simulate water flow, as well as to design diverse structures that influence water flow. A recent book, Flowing Through Time, provides detailed coverage of IIHR's founding, its development, and its present prospects.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), has developed hydrologic procedures for ungaged watersheds. NRCS initially used manual procedures to design conservation measures at the farm level. The agency was authorized to make small watershed studies in 1954 and this encouraged NRCS to develop manual procedures that could be used for ungaged watersheds across the United States. As computers became available, NRCS used them to develop and refine hydrologic procedures. This paper will explain the evolution of the current hydrologic procedures.

The Illinois State Water Survey has provided leadership in establishing a scientific and engineering basis for water resources planning and management in Illinois and the nation since 1895. Although primary program areas have changed over time, some core programs remain. Program areas are monitoring, research, and public service, using the hydrologic cycle as the unifying framework. Major strengths of the Survey have been, and continue to be, partnerships with the other Scientific Surveys, the governing Board of Natural Resources and Conservation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Southern Illinois University, state and local government agencies, private companies, and professional organizations, especially the American Society of Civil Engineers. The Water Survey's contributions in the field of Civil Engineering are many and varied. These include river hydraulics, sedimentation and sediment transport, navigation impacts, hydraulic geometries of rivers and streams, urban runoff programs, groundwater evaluation analyses and modeling, wetland hydraulics, and water quality evaluations of streams, rivers and lakes. A goal is to make all of the Survey's major historical and current data sets and reports available via the Internet.

Selected themes through the history of water quality management paint an exciting picture of accomplishment led by innovative and committed Civil Engineers. Research results on the tools for waste management and its analytical basis, for example, allowed institutional capacity to evolve to implement them. This process continues. Currently the field is facing a number of frustrating issues — the history of a few are summarized with some hints of how they might be resolved. For example, drinking water protection has proceeded apace, helped by a series of national initiatives and now the concern for bio-terrorism. But small, scattered systems, public or private, water supply or onsite waste disposal need attention in ways they have not in the past. Organizational challenges include who should pay. Finally we indicate some sources of further opportunity. For example, now that there is widely accepted methodology to put a dollar value on anything, when should it be used?

In the quarter of a century since the presentation of Schad's 1976 paper on the historical development of water resources planning in the United States at the Society's Bicentennial Convention in Philadelphia the nation has experienced a gradual change in water resources planning. Multi-objective and river basin planning with a primary focus on the use of water to promote economic development had peaked in the mid 1970s. Forecasts of lower total demands for water and a shift in concern to environmental quality as a primary objective led to planning based on federal regulaliton for the remainder of the century. The change has not come about in a linear progression, but in a series of ad hoc steps. The Water Resources Council's (WRC) Principles and Standards for multi-objective planning were replaced by Principles and Guidelines in which economic development was the governing objective, with environmental quality as a secondary, less important objective. The emphasis on federally led planning, with coordinated federal and state efforts by the WRC, also shifted to require increased non-federal cost sharing for planning of traditional water resource programs. At the same time the technological attack on water pollution legislated by the 1972 Water Pollution Control Act Amendments also engendered large expenditures for pollution abatement through regulatory approaches. As we proceed into the third millennium new emphasis on planning to protect our water infrastructure from terrorist attack and to sustain vital services must also become more prominent in planning for water management. In addition, as overall demand begins to again increase later in the21^st century a return to multi-objective planning including water quality and environmental attributes is needed to effectively use our finite water resources.

Before the 1960s, watershed modeling was primarily confined to modeling of individual components of the hydrologic cycle. Since the advent of computers and the ground breaking development of the Stanford watershed model, numerous watershed models have been developed. This study traces the history of watershed modeling.

I had just received the invitation to submit this article to the EWRI Proceedings when the "Coosa-Alabama River Improvement Association Newsletter" arrived to announce that once again President Bush's budget did not include funding to maintain and operate a navigation channel on the Alabama River. Why? Because by federal criteria used to assess navigation projects this stream, which was once crowded with all sorts of watercraft, is now an "unproductive" river. That got me thinking — thinking about what I had written back in the early 1990s when I was pulling together the loose ends that, when tied up, would be Rivers of History: Life on the Coosa, Tallapoosa, Cahaba, and Alabama. And thinking about what I would say now, to explain why this once important river system, today, isn't. To do this, to make sense of the rise and decline of this remarkable waterway, I need to go back, back to where I began the book, back to the rivers before man came to change them, back to when they still ran wild and free.

Over a period of years from the prior Management Group and Technical Activities Committee structure, ASCE has created new National Institutes: Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), Geo-Institute (G-I), Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI), and in 1999 the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI). Additional institutes added in recent years are Coastal, Ocean, Ports, and Riverine Institute (COPRI), Construction Institute (CI), and the Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) in 2002. The ASCE Task Committee to Create the EWRI was formed in fiscal year 1997 and for two years chaired by Michael L. Stevens/Conrad G. Keyes, Jr. to plan the transition for the Environmental and Water Resources Institute from three ASCE Divisions: Environmental Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, and Water Resources Planning & Management plus the Water & Environmental Standards Council. In July 1999, the ASCE Board of Direction approved the formation of the EWRI, to officially begin October 1, 1999.

The Irrigation Engineering (IR) Division in ASCE was authorized in June 20, 1922 with 23 members and a five-member Executive Committee elected by members of the Division. The constitution of this Division was fully established by 1925. The Division grew to 645 members and affiliates by 1927. Participants in this Division included engineers from federal and state water-related governmental agencies as well as from irrigation, drainage and reclamation districts, universities, and consulting firms. The IR Division was renamed the Irrigation and Drainage (I&D) Division in 1953. The early action committees organized in the Division included committees on National Reclamation Policy, Cooperation between Federal and State Agencies, Drainage of Irrigated Lands, Duty of Water, and Interstate Water Rights. Over time the Division's activities extended into water conservation, capacity of irrigated lands to pay irrigation costs, sedimentation in reservoirs, irrigation conveyance losses, irrigation and drainage practices in humid areas, drought, reuse of waters for irrigation, on-farm irrigation, and water quality. Many of these topics are still relevant in the 21^st Century.

Formation of the ASCE Hydraulics Division was authorized by the Board of Direction of the Society in April 1938 as the twelfth technical division. Prior to that time, 28 different committees of the Society had been concerned with water. The petition to form the Division was signed by 200 members of ASCE, with the stated objective: To strengthen the position of the civil engineer in general and special fields of hydraulic engineering, to sponsor papers and encourage discussion of hydraulic engineering subjects, to urge civil engineering colleges to equip their students with a knowledge equal to that imparted in the curriculum of any other type of engineering college.

The Water Resources Planning and Management Division began its existence as a council, the status it now holds as one of the components of ASCE's Environmental and Water Resources Institute. The predecessor organization was first authorized in 1971 as the Technical Council on Water Resources Planning and Management. This organization was approved as a trial in response to efforts to establish a new division, which had been led primarily by individuals within ASCE's Hydraulics Division and Sanitary (Environmental) Engineering Division. The primary goal of the proposed division was to address a perceived need for a single focal point for water planning and management activities. Such activities had previously been diffused across the various water-related components of ASCE due to their basic importance as a corollary of engineering decision-making related to water.

This paper provides the general policies, operational procedures, and some activities by the Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of the ASCE, Standards Development Council (SDC), since October 1, 1999 and its predecessors — the Water & Environmental Standards Council (1995–1999) and the Special Standards Council (1990 – 1994) of ASCE. The ANSI/ASCE recognized Environmental Standards Committee started in 1977, workshops with funding by EPA began in April 1978, and the Technical Council on Codes and Standards existed within ASCE from 1980 through 1989. The environmental and water resources standards are carefully reviewed consensus documents on design, operation, installation, and/or maintenance for adoption or utilization by the profession. Model Codes or agreements developed by these Councils have to be used by appropriate governmental organizations throughout the world. These procedures and activities intend to provide the history and supplemental information that may be contained in the current editions of the EWRI Operations Handbook, any ASCE Technical Activities Committee (TAC) Handbook, and the 1980–2002 ASCE Official Registers.