Paul Busch; Authority on Water, Waste Treatment

Paul L. Busch, 61, an authority on management and treatment
of industrial and toxic wastes. Busch was president and
chief executive of Malcolm Pirnie Inc., a national
environmental consulting firm headquartered in White Plains,
N.Y. He began with the company as an environmental engineer
38 years ago, after earning bachelor's and master's degrees
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate
at Harvard. He rose to vice president in 1970, was named
president in 1988 and CEO in 1990. Called a visionary by
other leaders in the field, he helped provide clean drinking
water and design environmental cleanup solutions for many of
the nation's major cities. In San Francisco in 1980, he
developed a plan for a waste water treatment system that
saved the city more than $ 300 million while providing
environmental benefits. More recently in San Diego, he came
up with a unique solution for an emergency repair on a giant
sewer that allowed city engineers to keep the sewer in
service by performing the repair from the outside of the
waste pipe. He also helped direct the expansion of a
Cleveland facility, creating the world's largest advanced
waste water treatment plant, which helped clean up Lake Erie
and the Cuyahoga River. The San Diego and San Francisco
projects were among many that won accolades from
professional societies. Busch's honors include his 1996
election to the National Academy of Engineering. He was past
president of the American Academy of Engineers and chairman
of the Water Environment Research Foundation and served on
the National Research Council's Water Science and Technology
Board. Believing that his field needed to increase the
numbers of African Americans in environmental engineering,
he helped establish the Malcolm Pirnie / United Negro
College Fund Scholars Program. On July 28 in Boston of
complications of Hodgkins disease.