Michael John McGuire (born June 29, 1947) is an American environmental engineer, laboratory director and writer whose career has focused on drinking water quality improvement.
He developed a solution to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's (19 million customers) problem with trihalomethanes using ozone, PEROXONE and chloramines.
He attended grammar school in a number of locations, because his father was in the U.S. Army and stationed in several places during McGuire's early years.
[5] While at Drexel, he developed a direct water injection analytical method for four "polarity probe" compounds: 1,4-dioxane, methyl ethyl ketone, n-butanol and nitromethane.
[6] He participated in a variety of projects including the supervision of a research program that involved the surveillance of the water quality of the Delaware River Estuary.
He directed a variety of physical chemical treatment and environmental chemistry projects, and he ran the central water laboratory for Metropolitan.
During this period he designed a comprehensive research program to determine the cause of earthy musty odor problems in six southern California reservoirs.
[8] Because no analytical methods existed for these odorous compounds, McGuire developed a closed-loop-stripping analysis (CLSA) technique capable of detecting less than 5 parts per trillion in drinking water.
[9] Supporting the CLSA results McGuire adapted the Flavor Profile Analysis method from the food and beverage industry to drinking water.
[13] In 1986, he recommended that the complete control of the trihalomethane and taste and odor problems required installation of ozone and PEROXONE at all five Metropolitan treatment plants (total capacity of over 2,000 mgd).
[14] [15] The 5.5 mgd Oxidation Demonstration Plant was put into service in 1992 and won the Grand Prize for Research from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists.
After five years, he started to grow the firm until it ultimately had 37 employees in three offices: Santa Monica and Newport Beach, California and Denver, Colorado.
McGuire worked for Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. for a little more than three years as a vice president while he managed the Santa Monica, California office.
In 2014, he was appointed as adjunct professor at UCLA where he taught courses in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and the Institute of Environment and Sustainability.
McGuire is a widely published author who has written and presented over 300 professional articles and co-edited five books and collected works.
Subject areas for his publications include: treatment plant optimization, activated carbon adsorption of organic compounds, corrosion of distribution system materials, occurrence and control of disinfection byproducts, identification and control of tastes and odors, removal of asbestos fibers, perchlorate removal, control of chloramines and nitrification, removal of hexavalent chromium, compliance with drinking water regulations, oxidation with ozone and PEROXONE and the history of drinking water disinfection.
The citation for his election to the NAE reads “For scientific contributions that have improved the safety and aesthetics of drinking water.” In 2014, McGuire received the Dr. John L. Leal Award from AWWA.