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ETHICAL ENGINEERING
James Hare (jah236@pitt.edu)
APPLICATION OF ETHICS TO
ENGINEERING
While ethics applies to all fields and careers, it especially
applies to the profession of engineering because engineers
have tremendous responsibilities. Any decision an engineer
makes can have far-reaching effects on society, whether that
decision is what kind of heating coil to use in a toaster or how
many control rods to use in a particular nuclear reactor design.
Since it may be likely that the average engineer will face an
ethical dilemma in his career at some point, it is wise to be
prepared to face them. For this reason, professional
engineering groups such as the National Society of
Professional Engineers (NSPE) and the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers (AIChE) have published ethical codes
that serve as guidelines for their members; these codes
attempt to cover all possible situations and scenarios that an
engineer could face. However, these codes are only
guidelines; there are situations when a code will seem to have
conflicting recommendations, and an engineer will have to
make a hard decision.
SCENARIO AND DILEMMA
I imagine the following scenario: I am a new employee,
just graduated from college, at a hydraulic fracturing
company with a good reputation on environmental issues. As
a chemical engineer, I am assigned to work as an assistant
project manager for a particular fracking site; my main duty
is to ensure environmental code compliance, which includes
containment of spills and sanitizing toxic produced water. As
the fracking job progresses, I decide to collect the produced
water in a holding tank for sanitation, which I decide to delay
until there is enough to justify hiring a chemical company to
clean it. As the well starts to “run dry,” my supervisor, who is
not a chemical engineer, orders me to cancel the contract for
the chemical treatment company to clean the produced water,
explaining that doing so would relieve his budget problems
on this particular well. When I ask about what to do with the
water, he tells me to just pump it back down the well when
the drill is removed, saying that “there shouldn’t be a serious
environmental impact from a little bit of water, right?” He
follows that question with a challenge: “You like working
here, correct? Let’s try and keep you employed.”
The Dilemma
The order from my supervisor presents me with two basic
choices: go ahead with his order or not. Not following
instructions would lead to the project being over budget,
likely causing my supervisor, who has been cautioned about
budgetary problems before, to be threatened by the corporate
headquarters with serious consequences this time. That would
likely lead to the loss of my job, as implied when he delivered
his order. Following his recommendation would initially
create no issues. But from my knowledge of the qualities of
produced water, I know that there will likely be a serious
environmental impact years later.
The Fracking Process and Produced Water
The origin of produced water is in the fluid used to
fracture the rock formations where the desired gas lies. It
contains sand to hold the fractures open and other chemicals
that serve various purposes. The other chemicals usually
include an acid to break down bits of rock that are left after
fracture, biocides to kill organisms like bacteria, corrosion
inhibitors to keep the pipes lasting, a gelling agent to ensure
that the gas is a liquid, and friction reducers to ease the travel
of the gas to the surface [1]. Due to the mixture of all these
chemicals, there is already a toxicity present in the fluid;
however, when it is injected into the rock at high pressure, it
also frees other dangerous substances, especially heavy
metals, including barium, strontium, and iron [2]. These
substances are radioactive and pose a significant threat to
health. The actual bad news of this freeing of radioactive
substances is that they dissolve in the fracking fluid, which
then flows back out of the well with the gas. After the used
fracking fluid exits the well, it is called “produced water” [3].
As a chemical engineer, I would know that the produced
water is dangerous if left untreated, and that it’s not just “a
little bit” of water. Since the average fracking site requires a
minimum of three million gallons of water [4], there would
be a similar volume of produced water at the end of the job. I
would also know about the many lawsuits brought against
fracking companies regarding unsafe water supplies, mainly
brought about through improper disposal of produced water
and its eventual leaching into municipal water supplies. At
this moment the realization comes: I have a very big decision
to make.
VALUE OF ETHICAL CODES
Engineering ethical codes are valuable resources when
there is an ethical decision to be made. Every society of
engineering professionals has its own code, all of which
resemble the code of the National Society of Professional
Engineers (NSPE). There are times when the codes do not
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quite fully provide immediate guidance to a decision. This
kind of situation is where an engineer’s ethics are really
tested.
Value of Codes in the Outlined Scenario
In the scenario described above, the NSPE code has two
canons that apply: “I.1. Hold paramount the safety, health,
and welfare of the public…I.4. Act for each employer or client
as faithful agents or trustees” [5]. The AIChE code also
stipulates: “Formally advise their employers or clients (and
consider further disclosure, if warranted) if they perceive that
a consequence of their duties will adversely affect the future
health or safety of their colleagues or the public” [6]. Both
codes seem to offer conflicting advice here, where the
employer is both testing my loyalty and likely endangering
the welfare of the public. However, in this case there is one
element where the code provides the guidance necessary: it
says that public safety is the most important goal. On the other
hand, neither code tells me what to do as a young engineer
with little experience and the imminent possibility of being
fired. In this scenario, the codes provide the guidance toward
which course of action is ethical, but not the exact way to go
about following that course, meaning that the codes are
functioning as they were intended. As stated before, the codes
are meant to serve as guidelines, not instruction manuals, for
ethical situations.
Value of Codes to Engineers in General
In general, the ethical codes given by professional
engineering societies are helpful in making decisions, but
there are limitations in certain specific scenarios. This may be
because the codes are written to be broader and cover more
situations. The main drawbacks of making ethical codes apply
to specific situations are that the number of positions in which
an engineer can find himself are nearly limitless and that the
writers run the risk of creating conflicting guidelines at some
point in the writing. This is why the codes are meant to be
guidelines, not laws. They are supposed to help engineers
toward decisions, not make dictate which alternative provides
the best ethical solution.
HELP FROM OTHER SOURCES
There are three main routes to follow when you find
yourself in an ethical quandary: first, you can search for case
studies in the hope that someone has already been in your
situation or has hypothesized one closely resembling it. The
second option is to search for articles on ethics and
engineering in general and do some thinking. Finally, you can
seek out guidance from sources that may not be related to
engineering, such as parents, friends, or former mentors and
teachers.
Case Studies
A case study can be real or hypothetical, and it focuses on
a specific scenario, the people involved, and the ethics of the
decision into which one of the people is forced by
circumstances. Most also provide commentary by experts on
ethics. Hundreds of case studies can be found simply by
searching the internet; sites that contain many studies include
the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science
(www.onlineethics.org/Resources/Cases) and Texas Tech
University’s web page directory for various case studies
(www.depts.ttu.edu/murdoughcenter/products/cases.php).
On these sites I found three studies in particular that were
relevant to my scenario, each in its own way. The first one is
from the OEC and is titled “Leaking Waste Containers.” It
details a supervisor’s actions in illegally disposing of
chemical waste; this study provided a perspective of
imagining the worst possible outcome, which in this instance
is a class action lawsuit several years after the incident [7].
The second case study I found, from Texas Tech University,
is titled “Case 1042 – Roman Holiday” and covers a different
field of engineering, but is similar in that it describes a new
employee, a corner-cutting supervisor, and the dilemma that
he faces regarding budgetary concerns and his own future
with the company. It also gives a survey listing respondents’
choices on what the ethical course of action should be; 33%
of the respondents, a plurality, felt that the employee should
“comply with the code of ethics…and pursue his concerns
until he feels the matter is satisfactorily addressed” [8]. The
final relevant case study I discovered, also form the OEC, is
titled “Disposing of Toxic Waste” and describes a scenario
where a student with a summer job is ridiculed for
environmentalism after questioning an order to dispose of a
chemical illegally and provides commentary on the scenario
from five different experts, all of whom provide a list of
alternatives for the student [9]. While I used these case studies
mainly to build my own scenario, they also helped by
providing alternate courses of action that I had not considered;
in real-world situations, they can give valuable guidance if the
scenarios are similar.
Ethics Articles
Another possible source of ethical guidance is journal
articles on engineering ethics. The main purpose they serve is
to help start the actual thinking process and guide an engineer
through it. As Norman R. Augustine writes in The Bridge,
“…the work of engineers must do far more than comply with
the laws of nature; it must also comply with the laws of
society and must serve our principal client, humankind” [10].
This emphasizes the point that engineers have to make ethical
decisions in almost every major project. He also outlines the
ethics of “the designers of the Titanic, who provided 1,178
lifeboat positions on a ship that carried 2,224 passengers and
crew. When disaster struck, 1,515 people lost their lives, at
least in part because of this single decision” [11]. The logic of
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the situation demands an explanation of whether they firmly
believed the “unsinkable” advertisement of the ship, and why
they did not provide enough places for everyone aboard [12].
Another article, “Whistleblowing – Is it Always Obligatory?”
written by Edmund G. Seebauer in CEP Magazine, raises
questions about the good and bad results of each alternative
in a situation. Seebauer also creates a sliding scale for
cooperation with the action; he places cooperation at a
distance at the low end of the scale, immediate material
cooperation in the middle, and formal cooperation at the high
end of the spectrum [13]. He also details responsibility, which
according to him can be limited by a lack of knowledge, a lack
of freedom (when there is no other option), or a lack of
approval, which can be affected by the time it takes for a
decision to be thought out and made [14]. Both authors
provide assistance, Augustine with starting the ethical process
in the mind with a qualitative approach and Seebauer using a
more quantitative perspective with regard to responsibility.
“Nontraditional” Sources
If I was still not sure of what to do in a situation after
consulting ethical codes, case studies, and ethics articles, I
would turn to a mentor. Right now that would be Guido Fetta,
a chemical engineer whom I have known for nearly as long as
I can remember. He is the one who initially suggested the idea
of becoming an engineer and is also a very ethical man, one
whom I would trust to give good advice in any situation I
could describe to him. In this situation I think he would tell
me to not comply with the order, but that it would be my
decision how to go about doing that (G. Fetta, personal
communication, March 18, 2019) [15].
However, if there were any time that I felt that his
guidance was not enough, I would turn to my faith. Whether
I obtain guidance from a priest or from the Catechism of the
Catholic Church, I believe that such help would be more than
adequate in an ethical scenario, since Catholicism has
guidelines for morality on everything, including employeeemployer relations and the environment [16]. However, in the
end of every situation, it is up to the person experiencing the
dilemma to decide his course of action.
ETHICAL DECISION
In the scenario defined above, I would have to consider all
my options: refuse to follow orders, take the question to
senior-level management, or comply with the order. A flat
refusal to perform the duty would not be the best way to
proceed since there is a clear risk of unemployment, which in
this case is caused by firing from a first job out of college.
Needless to say, other employers would be much less likely
to hire a person in this situation. Another thing to consider is
that the supervisor could just bypass me and have another
employee dump the produced water back into the well.
On the other hand, complying with the order would violate
my ethical principles and would make me at least partially
responsible for any bad effects of the operation. As described
above, simply knowing the history of fracking should be a
caution to this course of action; it is common knowledge that
fracking corporations have faced lawsuits from people with
unsanitary water supplies due to unsafe produced water
disposal. It is possible in this scenario that I would be held
partially liable for my actions, even several years later.
The option of taking the question to more senior
management is likely to be the best alternative here. The fact
that the company has a good environmental reputation makes
it more likely that disposal regulations will be followed and
the water will be treated, since the company will want to
maintain that reputation. Taking the issue “up the ladder” also
removes an aspect of my responsibility, since I have been
ethical just in raising the question at a high level. Ideally, the
best possible outcome of this decision is management
confirming my initial thoughts and firing my supervisor for
negligence, resulting in a promotion for me. The worst
possible end for this course is my supervisor’s plan being
confirmed and complying with his orders.
In my opinion, if I was placed in the scenario described, I
would make the decision to bypass the supervisor’s authority
and contact senior management. I would do whatever they
told me to do just for the sake of keeping my job, but I would
keep a log of my actions in the situation if their decision goes
against my ethical goal. The log would be for future testimony
in the event of a lawsuit, should anything bad come of the
disposal.
PROCEDURES FOR ETHICAL
DILEMMAS
In general, engineers faced with an ethical dilemma can
make productive and correct assessments of their choices first
by reading the professional codes of ethics and checking to
see if they apply. If they don’t provide enough assistance, case
studies can be reviewed for similarity and articles can be read
for help in the process of outlining options. The most helpful
sources can sometimes be non-engineering sources, such as
mentors and other people; even faith and religion can be
considered in ethical matters. However, the final decision
always has to be made by the engineer in the situation.
REFERENCES
[1] M.M. Bomgardner. (2012). “Cleaner Fracking.” Chemical
and
Engineering
News.
(Online
article).
http://cen.acs.org/content/dam/cen/static/pdfs/Article_Assets
/90/09042-cover.pdf
[2] D.L. Turcotte, E.M. Moores, J.B. Rundle. (2014). “Super
Fracking.”
Physics
Today.
(Online
article).
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http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/ar
ticle/67/8/10.1063/PT.3.2480
[3] M.M. Bomgardner. (2012). “Cleaner Fracking.” Chemical
and
Engineering
News.
(Online
article).
http://cen.acs.org/content/dam/cen/static/pdfs/Article_Assets
/90/09042-cover.pdf
[4] C. W. Schmidt. (2013). “Estimating Wastewater Impacts
from Fracking.” Environmental Health Perspectives. (Online
article). http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/121-a117/
[5] National Society of Professional Engineers. (2014). Code
of Ethics of the National Society of Professional Engineers.
(Online
code
of
ethics).
http:/www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics
[6] American Institute of Chemical Engineers. (2014). Code
of Ethics of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
(Online code of ethics). http://www.aiche.org/about/codeethics
[7] Online Ethics Center for Engineering, National Academy
of Engineering. (2006). “Leaking Waste Containers.” (Online
case
study).
http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/Cases/Containers.asp
x
[8] National Institute for Engineering Ethics, Murdough
Center for Engineering Professionalism, Texas Tech
University. (2012). “Case 1042 – Roman Holiday.”
(Downloadable
case
study
accessible
online).
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/murdoughcenter/products/cases.ph
p
[9] Online Ethics Center for Engineering, National Academy
of Engineering. (2006). “Disposing of Toxic Waste.” (Online
case
study).
http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/Cases/Toxic.aspx
[10] N.R. Augustine. (2002). “Ethics and the Second Law of
Thermodynamics.”
The
Bridge.
(Online
article).
https://www.nae.edu/Publications/Bridge/EngineeringEthics
7377/EthicsandtheSecondLawofThermodynamics.aspx
[11] N.R. Augustine. (2002). “Ethics and the Second Law of
Thermodynamics.”
The
Bridge.
(Online
article).
https://www.nae.edu/Publications/Bridge/EngineeringEthics
7377/EthicsandtheSecondLawofThermodynamics.aspx
[12] N.R. Augustine. (2002). “Ethics and the Second Law of
Thermodynamics.”
The
Bridge.
(Online
article).
https://www.nae.edu/Publications/Bridge/EngineeringEthics
7377/EthicsandtheSecondLawofThermodynamics.aspx
[13] E.G. Seebauer. (2004). “Whistleblowing – Is it Always
Obligatory?”
CEP
Magazine.
(Online
article).
http://www.aiche.org/resources/publications/cep/2004/june/
whistleblowing-it-always-obligatory
[14] E.G. Seebauer. (2004). “Whistleblowing – Is it Always
Obligatory?”
CEP
Magazine.
(Online
article).
http://www.aiche.org/resources/publications/cep/2004/june/
whistleblowing-it-always-obligatory
[15] G. Fetta. (2019, March 18). Conversation.
[16] Catechism of the Catholic Church. (1995). New York:
Doubleday.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the writing of this paper, I was assisted by the efforts of
Eric Stratman in helping to motivate me and those of Sara
Saidman in brainstorming for a topic. I also need to
acknowledge the inspiration of David Sanchez, my ENGR 11
instructor, and Dan Budny, the head of the freshman
engineering program here at Pitt. I also need to thank Nancy
Koerbel and Beth Newborg for helping explain writing
assignments, as well as Dan McMillan for providing
suggestions for improvement on my last assignment. I also
have to thank other members of the freshman engineering
class, especially Natalie Baron and Craig Bair, for listening
politely to my ramblings about my topic.
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