Ellen Swallow Richards was an American chemist and engineer regarded as a founder of the field of sanitary and environmental engineering. The first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she conducted a landmark survey of Massachusetts water quality in the 1880s that mapped pollution across the state's rivers and led to the country's first state water-quality standards, and she helped establish MIT's sanitary chemistry laboratory to train engineers in analyzing water and sewage. She also founded the home economics movement, applying engineering and chemistry to domestic environments, and helped found the American Association of University Women. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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Who commissioned Ellen Swallow Richards's Massachusetts water survey, and what came of it?
The State Board of Health requested it in 1887, and it led to the first state water-quality standards and the first modern municipal sewage treatment plant, in Lowell.
The Massachusetts State Board of Health asked for the survey in 1887. Richards and her assistants examined the quality of the state's inland bodies of water, many of which were already polluted with industrial waste and municipal sewage. The survey was unprecedented in scale and led to the first state water-quality standards in the nation and the first modern municipal sewage treatment plant, in Lowell, Massachusetts. From 1887 to 1897 she served as official water analyst for the State Board of Health while continuing as an instructor at MIT.
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Source Ellen Swallow Richards (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributorsLead sentence 1tier 2Quote, Lead sentence 1
Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (née Swallow; December 3, 1842 – March 30, 1911) was an American industrial and safety engineer, environmental chemist, and university faculty member in the United States during the 19th century.
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1. Ellen Swallow Richards (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (née Swallow; December 3, 1842, March 30, 1911) was an American industrial and safety engineer, environmental chemist, and university faculty member in the United States during the 19th century.
- In Field: Environmental Engineering
In Group: Sanitary and Environmental Engineers, Lead paragraph
Her pioneering work in sanitary engineering
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