www.ca-nv-awwa.org 27
MAKING HISTORY
Governor Johnson create a Bureau of
Sanitary Engineering (BSE or Bureau)
within California’s State Board of Public
Health and provide permit authority over
drinking water sources and oversight
of municipal waste. Those two visitors
were Professor Charles Gilman Hyde and
Professor George Elliot Ebright, M.D.
Throughout his life, Charles Hyde
was acutely aware of the dark cloud that
enveloped his father’s countenance—a fa-ther
who, Charles thought, never seemed
happy. Charles was the youngest of nine
children; his first five siblings did not sur-vive
one of the last cholera epidemics to
ravage North America. We are left to our
imagination regarding the path Charles
Hyde selected for his life’s work. Did he
have an intellectual predilection for sani-tary
engineering or was he drawn to that
field through the
environmental forc-es
that decimated
half his family?
Regardless of the
motivating force,
Charles graduated
with honors from
the Massachusetts
Institute of Technol-ogy
with a degree
in sanitary engi-neering.
Upon his graduation in 1896, Charles
worked for the Massachusetts State Board
of Health, focusing his efforts on drink-ing
water supplies, sewerage and sewage
disposal and typhoid fever epidemiology.
From there, he took an engineering posi-tion
in charge of water purification in Phil-adelphia
and then became Harrisburg’s
resident engineer in charge of water filtra-tion
experiments and the design and con-struction
of the city’s filtration works. In
1906, Charles Hyde moved to California to
start a sanitary engineering program at the
University of California, Berkeley. Early in
1913, Professor Hyde and 14 other experts
in the field of sanitary engineering and epi-demiology
met to develop the nation’s first
drinking water standard. After months of
deliberation, they agreed upon a standard
of no more than 2 coliforms/100mL. The
standard was promulgated October 21,
1914 by the U.S. Department of Treasury
and only pertained to interstate common
carriers, such as ships and trains. Howev-er,
the expert panel that promoted the new
drinking water regulation was cognizant of
the fact that most vessels obtained their wa-ter
from what was understood to be sources
that served the public and the expectation
was for public water sources to comply with
the same coliform standard. Unfortunately,
Charles’ father passed away just months
before the national standard was promul-gated,
and he was not able to witness the
significant advances his son accomplished
to ensure water supplies throughout the
United States were fit to drink.
While at UC Berkeley, he quickly
developed strong and lasting bonds with
his students who were affectionately
known as “Hyde’s Boys.”1 One can
surmise that Charles found in his students
those familial relationships he missed
during his childhood and adolescence.
Early during his tenure at Cal, Professor
Hyde worked alongside Dr. George Elliot
Ebright to promote the creation of the
Bureau of Sanitary Engineering (BSE)
within the State Board of Public Health.
Shortly before Charles’ 41st birthday, on
May 24, 1915, their efforts materialized
through a legislative act that provided for
“the establishment and maintenance of a
department of sanitary engineering under
the direction of the state board of health.”
The California State Board of Health,
established on March 18, 1870, was
comprised of seven physicians, two from
Sacramento and the other five members
selected from throughout the state, all
appointed by the Governor. Oversight of
sewerage works and conducting sanitary
inspections of water systems were a few of
the Board’s responsibilities. The Bureau of
Sanitary Engineering, under the umbrella
of the State Board of Public Health, started
operations on August 8, 1915, with two
engineers and one office support staff.
The office was located on the UC Berkeley
campus in the scattered buildings of the
Civil Engineering Department2, next to
Professor Hyde’s office.
Vital statistics were often utilized to
justify the cost of new state programs.
During the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, records indicated California
experienced approximately 40 deaths
per 100,000 people due to typhoid in
drinking water. At that time, the average
annual wage was $700 per person, and
the state population was around three
million. It was also routinely assumed
that only 10 percent of typhoid cases
resulted in death. These statistics were
used as the basis for determining the
lost wages and tax revenues for the
state. Therefore, typhoid alone (these
statistics do not include dysentery,
which often was more than likely a result
of waterborne disease) was calculated
to account for more than $500,000 in
statewide lost wages and more than
$33,000 in lost tax revenue. The concept
of lost wages due to illness is currently
highlighted during the world’s exposure
to the coronavirus, where economists
predict potential global losses in the tens
to hundreds of billion dollars.
The legislative act that created the
Bureau of Sanitary Engineering included
an annual budget of $30,000, a figure
easily offset by restoration of lost wages
and tax revenues through the reduction
in typhoid outbreaks. It should be
noted as the first E. coli drinking
water standard was established, many
scientists and health specialists never
thought it would be possible to reduce
the number of deaths in drinking water
due to typhoid to less than two per
100,000 people (if this projection stayed
accurate, California would still be
experiencing more than 800 deaths per
year from bacterial infections in drinking
water).
As stated earlier, Professor Hyde
had great affection for his students and
Charles Hyde, UC
Berkeley professor, helped
develop the nation’s first
drinking water standard.
University of California Berkeley Library, as
pictured in the Chamber of Commerce Handbook for
San Francisco, published in 1914.
The original Civil Engineering building at UC
Berkeley that housed the Bureau of Sanitary
Engineering.