History

At the beginning of the last century the improved water supply systems in towns led to problems in disposing of waste waster that was passed into waterways either untreated or at best after mechanical treatment. Therefore in 1933 the Swiss Angling Association demanded that the Swiss Interior Ministry take measures to combat the increasing levels of water pollution and set up an advisory centre for water treatment. On 1 January 1936 the Federal Council established the “ETH Advisory Centre for Waste Water Treatment and Drinking Water Supply”. The Hygiene Institute, led by Professor Willi von Gonzenbach, and the Aquatic Engineering Test Facility, headed by Professor Eugen Meyer-Peter, formed the basis of the new institute. In addition to providing advisory services, it focused on research and education in the field of waste water treatment technology as well as on monitoring the quality of water as a control instrument for the correct operation of treatment plants.

In 1945 the Advisory Centre became the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology, affiliated to the ETH. It was headed by Dr. Ulrich Corti, a chemist.

In 1952 Professor Otto Jaag was appointed as Director of Eawag. He lectured at the ETH Zurich on hydrobiology and limnology as well as on special botany, and he showed an early and consistent commitment to establishing water protection legislation. At Eawag Jaag set up a Limnology department and simultaneously built up the advisory and educational activities, especially for civil engineers. In 1955 he expanded the institute to include a Waste Disposal Research department as a consequence of the clear connections between the waste disposal methods used at that time and the pollution of the waterways and ground water. From the 60s onwards Eawag increasingly concentrated on its remit as a research centre. Pioneering studies were carried out on the overfertilisation of lakes, on the self-cleaning powers of waterways, and on the measurement of biological treatment plants. In 1960 the natural scientific areas were enhanced when Eawag took over the “Hydrobiological Laboratory” in Kastanienbaum on Lake Lucerne from the Naturforschende Gesellschaft Luzern (Lucerne Society of Natural Science). Thanks to his network of contacts, Director Jaag was able to ensure the necessary funding for the renovation, extension and modern facilities of this laboratory, which also became the site of the new Fishery Sciences department in 1969. In 1970 Eawag, until then an institute of the ETH Zurich became an affiliated institute within the ETH system, and in the same year, just a few months after Jaag retired, it moved into its new premises in Dübendorf.

Werner Stumm was an employee at Eawag from his graduation as a chemist until 1956. Then he worked for 14 years as a researcher and lecturer in the field of aquatic chemistry at Harvard University in Boston, USA. From 1970, as the new Director of Eawag, Werner Stumm assigned even more importance to fundamental research than his predecessor, Jaag. He recognised early on that environmental sciences have to be pursued in an interdisciplinary fashion, and so he demanded that that not only chemical, but also geological, biological and ecological aspects should be included. He motivated the researchers to keep an eye on the increasing number of industrially manufactured substances, and he looked for ways to improve analytical procedures.

In 1975 the new Ordinance for Waste Water Disposal set clear quality targets for water protection for the first time. Eawag had provided the basis for this, but the ordinance was also a spur to carry out further research on measurable criteria on the basis of ecotoxicology. In response to the reproach that advisory aspects were being neglected, Stumm enhanced the training and continuing education provision, including the introduction of a postgraduate course in Urban Water Management and Water Protection.

Professor Alexander Zehnder, a biochemist, became Director of Eawag in 1992 at a time of great changes. The ETH legislation had been amended, and in 1993 Eawag became an independent institute like the ETH Zurich and the ETH Lausanne and the other three research institutes (Empa, WSL and PSI). With his scientific commitment, his ambassadorial activities and his global contacts with respected institutes, Zehnder motivated many colleagues to make their mark with their own innovative research studies. Under his management, Eawag started to involve itself in the question of water availability, especially for food manufacturing. He made many advances in the fields of degradation of pollutants, biofilms and corrosion protection. In the field of ecotoxicology he promoted the change to understanding the process instead of simply describing the effects. Even more clearly than Stumm, Zehnder promoted interdisciplinary cooperation and the embracement of implementation and practice, for example in initiatives such as Fischnetz (fish decrease in Switzerland) and Greenhydro (environmentally friendly use of water power).

When Professor Alexander Zehnder was appointed President of the ETH Board in the summer of 2004, his deputy, Ueli Bundi, became the temporary Director of Eawag.