This dissertation project examines the development, accomplishments, and limitations of regulatory engineering at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during the 1970s. It is a mixed-method study of EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) that combines archival research and oral history interviews with STS policy theory. The Co-PI will visit the National Archives at College Park, MD; EPA's headquarter libraries at Washington, DC; and regional libraries and laboratories at Research Triangle Park, NC; Cincinnati, OH; Las Vegas, NV; and Corvallis, OR and will conduct oral history interviews with former EPA engineers and other professionals.
Intellectual merit
The project investigates the emergence of environmental engineering as a field in the United States as a co-production of policy and technology at the nexus of government, industry, and academia. It defines regulatory engineering as socio-technical problem definition and solution in which technical knowledge, products, and practices are incorporated into federal regulation, which in turn influences engineering knowledge and professional identity. By following the development of pollution control technologies and chemical monitoring during a period of extensive institutional change, the project addresses: (1) how engineers applied ecological ideas and developed new technologies; (2) why engineering became a supportive function at ORD, while its regulatory ideal spread into government and industry in the 1980s; and (3) how changes at EPA shaped future environmental policy and foreclosed alternatives by quantifying pollution and separating research from regulation.
Broader impact
By generating significant new knowledge about the relationship between environmental politics, engineering formation, and technology development, the project has broad relevance for policymakers, scientists and engineers, environmental activists, and STS scholars. It explains how regulatory policy-making interacts with professional research and practice. It highlights the role of engineers in environmental management and addresses the unique policy-oriented character of environmental engineering compared to other fields of engineering. Finally, it uses the history of EPA to inform effective technology policy in the current environmental crisis.
This dissertation project examined the co-production of environmental engineering and regulation at the Environmental Protection Agency during the 1970s. The Co-PI conducted archival research at National Archives and EPA's libraries, 10 oral history interviews with current and former EPA employees, and made access to the EPA's historical collection easier. The project focused on how regulatory engineers developed, applied, and evaluated the air pollution monitoring systems and control technologies—catalytic converters and scrubbers. By analyzing engineering knowledge and practice from laboratories to higher bureaucracy, the project addressed: (1) the emerging concept of the controlled environment; (2) the role of engineers and scientists in environmental research and regulation; and (3) consequences of regulatory engineering approaches to the environment. By generating significant new knowledge about the relationship between environmental politics, engineering formation, and technology development, the project explained how regulatory policy-making interacts with professional research and practice. The Co-PI's participation in the engineering studies/education communities has contributed to engineering educators' awareness of the environmental management and engineering during the 1970s. This project has broad relevance for policymakers and environmental activists to understand how regulatory policy-making interacts with professional research and practice. It also uses the EPA's history to inform effective technology policy in the current environmental crisis.
