PAUL D. HANEY 1911-1990

BY DWIGHT F. METZLER

Paul D. Haney, an internationally recognized authority in environmental engineering, died on May 5, 1990, at the age of seventy-nine. He was a retired partner of Black & Veatch.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 5, 1911, he was educated in the local schools. Paul received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Kansas (K.U.) in 1933 and his S.M. in sanitary engineering in 1937 from Harvard University, where he studied under Gordon Fair. He was elected to Delta Omega, the honorary public health society.

In a career spanning nearly sixty years, Paul taught at two universities, guided surface water quality studies for the nation, and made major contributions to the theory and practice of water purification and wastewater treatment. He was a teacher, researcher, and practicing engineer, whose dedication to the profession was recognized by his peers. They elected him to high office in the Water Pollution Control Federation (president, 1968–1969), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE; chair, Sanitary Engineering Division, 1966–1967), and the American Water Works Association (chair, Purification Division, 1958; director, 1964–1967).

He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1974. Before and after his election, he served on numerous committees of the National Research Council. He was a member of the Assembly of Engineering, the Potomac Estuary Study Committees, and the Subcommittee on Water Supply of the Division of Medical Sciences' Committee on Sanitary Engineering and Environment.

Paul began his career as an instructor in sanitary engineering at the University of Kansas and an engineer for the Kansas State Board of Health. In the latter capacity he supervised the Kansas Water and Sewage Laboratory. This experience caused him to insist on factual accuracy as a basis for problem solving. Throughout his career, he encouraged and guided many young engineers as they advanced in their profession. Subsequently, they moved into leadership positions in teaching, private practice, and the public sector.

Paul left Kansas in 1947 to teach at the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina. A year later he was commissioned in the Regular Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. He was assigned to the Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. For six years he directed nation wide stream quality studies as authorized by Congress in 1948. The findings from these studies provided the basis for the first federal law representing a comprehensive national effort to clean up surface waters (1956) and provided limited construction grants to municipalities.

He joined the consulting firm of Black & Veatch in 1954 and was elevated to partner in 1956. He directed investigations and guided designs in sewage and industrial waste treatment and in advanced wastewater treatment for some of the nation's largest cities in the Midwest and the East. He also directed water supply and treatment investigations, including a landmark study for Washington, D.C., that led to a one-million-gallon-a-day pilot plant designed to remove a wide variety of toxins from the lower Potomac River.

After he retired in 1978 as a Black & Veatch partner, he continued as a technical adviser to the firm's designers and researched inquiries from associates and friends. He read widely medical students at the University of Kansas School of Medicine through 1988, and found great satisfaction in taking them to observe water supply and wastewater projects. He served in the K.U. Chancellor's Club and on various committees of the School of Engineering.

Paul wrote manuals for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Interior. He served as a consultant to four federal departments and was a member of more than a dozen committees for establishing criteria and setting standards for water quality.

Paul was always a teacher who enjoyed sharing his scholarship with others. His forty-five published papers ranged from the analysis of broad environmental policy issues to highly technical discussion of water treatment. One of his earliest papers dealt with dual water systems. He was a major contributor or senior author for four books: The ASCE Manual of Practice for Sewage Treatment Plant Design (1959); the American Society of Civil Engineers, American Water Works Association, Conference of State Sanitary Engineers book, Water Treatment Plant Design (1969); The Process Design Manual for Phosphorus Removal (1971); and the 654-page book, Water Quality and Treatment, published by McGraw-Hill in 1971. These books and articles are used by engineers around the world.

Paul was concerned with the improvement of civil engineering practice. His influence on the profession was apparent as he served on the program committees for annual meetings of national organizations. He is credited with the creation and development of the technical programs plan used by the Water Pollution Control Federation for its annual meetings.

Paul was honored repeatedly for his contributions. The American Water Works Association awarded him its prize for the outstanding water supply paper of the year three times (1955, 1966, and 1970). He received its Goodell Prize in 1955, George Warren Fuller Award in 1958, honorary membership in 1970, and Divens Medal in 1971.

In addition to the presidency, his Water Pollution Control Federation honors included the Arthur Sidney Bedell Award (1970), the Charles Alvin Emerson Award (1975), the William J. Orchard Distinguished Service Medal (1979), and honorary membership in 1977.

The American Academy of Environmental Engineers presented him with the Edward J. Cleary Award in 1977, and the University of Kansas its Distinguished Engineering Service Award in 1983.

In addition to memberships in nine professional organizations, he was a member of Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi, the Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C., and the Carriage Club of Kansas City.

Paul's legacy to the engineering profession will long be remembered. His originality and creativity led to better understanding of water-related problems and to important achievements in water purification and treatment. Through engineering education, research, consulting, and management, he did much for the improvement, preservation, and proper use of America's water resources.