Editing Environmental engineering (section)

=== Modern era ===
Very little change was seen from the decline of the Roman Empire until the 19th century, where improvements saw increasing efforts focused on public health.<ref name=":2" /><ref name="National Science Foundation.(Dec. 3, 2009).Environmental Engineering">{{cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=501029|title=Funding - Environmental Engineering|website=US National Science Foundation|access-date=2013-07-01}}</ref> Modern environmental engineering began in [[London]] in the mid-19th century when [[Joseph Bazalgette]] designed the first major [[sewage collection and disposal|sewerage]] system following the [[Great Stink]].<ref name=":2" /> The city's sewer system conveyed raw sewage to the [[River Thames]], which also supplied the majority of the city's drinking water, leading to an outbreak of [[cholera]].<ref name=":2" /> The introduction of drinking water treatment and sewage treatment in industrialized countries reduced [[waterborne diseases]] from leading causes of death to rarities.<ref name="Water industry from The Oxford Companion to British History online">{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/diseases-and-conditions/pathology/waterborne-infections|title=Waterborne Infections|website=Encyclopedia.com|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref>

The field emerged as a separate academic discipline during the middle of the 20th century in response to widespread public concern about water and air pollution and other [[environmental degradation]]. As society and technology grew more complex, they increasingly produced unintended effects on the natural environment. One example is the widespread application of the pesticide [[DDT]] to control agricultural pests in the years following [[World War II]]. The story of DDT as vividly told in [[Rachel Carson]]'s ''[[Silent Spring]]'' (1962) is considered to be the birth of the modern [[environmental movement]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~radniect/whatisenvironmentalengineering.php|title=What is Environmental Engineering?|last=Radniecki|first=Tyler|website=College of Engineering|publisher=Oregon State University|access-date=2019-03-23}}</ref> which led to the modern field of "environmental engineering."