Demonstrating for the Environment: Scrubbers and EPA’s Sulfur Dioxide Control during the 1970s

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in December 1970 at the beginning of the “environmental decade.” In the following 10 years public awareness of the pollution and efforts toward its remediation dramatically increased. The EPA was often found at the hearings, courtrooms, and classrooms. What was happening inside the EPA’s offices and laboratories? Here I focus on scrubbers, devices absorbing sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power-plant emissions. I first examine how EPA engineers successfully developed and demonstrated scrubbers as the pollution-control technology against its technical and regulatory alternatives like low-sulfur coal, stack height increases, and intermittent control systems. Then I point out the EPA’s response to the environmental effects of scrubbers, such as the disposal of sludge. Finally, I aim to show the rise of the control-technology approach in the subsequent air-pollution control. I am interested in illustrating how engineering approaches to the environment gained legitimacy in the regulatory process.