Earle Bernard Phelps (July 10, 1876 – May 29, 1953) was a chemist, bacteriologist and sanitary expert who served in governmental positions and as an academic in some of the leading universities in the U.S.
His paternal ancestry can be traced for six generations to William Phelps, Sr. (1599–1672), the English immigrant who came to America in 1630 and settled in Windsor, Connecticut.
In 1910 to 1911 he conducted groundbreaking research with Colonel William M. Black of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the pollution of New York Harbor.
[6] In 1913, he left MIT and became the head of the Chemistry Division at the U.S. Hygienic Laboratory in Washington, DC., which was part of the U.S. Public Health Service.
[4][6] Phelps worked with H. W. Streeter who was a sanitary engineer with the Public Health service on the characterization of oxygen depletion in a stream receiving organic wastes.
The Streeter-Phelps equation was the first quantitative model that was used to determine the impact of biochemical oxygen demand discharges to surface water bodies.
[5]: 6305–7 Phelps supervised the design and construction of a large number of sewage purification plants including those at Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Tarrytown, New York, Rahway, New Jersey and Torrington, Connecticut.
City officials were not pleased with the project as delivered by the private water company and filed a lawsuit in the Chancery Court of New Jersey.
After the first trial, Vice Chancellor Frederic W. Stevens ruled that two to three times per year the reservoir did an imperfect job removing bacteria from the water.
A second trial was held to determine, in part, whether the addition of chloride of lime (calcium hypochlorite) produced a water that was "pure and wholesome".
[5]: 6308–10 Phelps was supported in his testimony by other expert witnesses for the plaintiffs including William T. Sedgwick, George C. Whipple and Charles-Edward A. Winslow.
The chlorination system was declared safe, reliable and effective by the Special Master, William J. Magie, and was judged capable of supplying Jersey City with water that was "pure and wholesome.