Structural Integrity and Moral Integrity

As engineers, a confliction readily appears in regards to cost efficiency against quality. Civil Engineer A of Peace Corps was assigned the task of the design and building of a desalination though electrodialysis plant in rural Uttar Pradesh, India. Desalination is the process of removing high salt contents from groundwater in order to render it drinkable. Of the total volume of water on Earth, nearly 97% is contaminated by salt and therefore undrinkable [1]. Electrodialysis uses oppositely charged chambers which extract the positive Na cation from the negative Cl anion of salt and yields an output of drinkable water in the ninetieth percentile [2]. The byproducts of this process is acidic hydrochloric acid (HCl) and basic sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The predicament that remains is what to do with these extreme pH substances. Electrodialysis, although a very efficient system, requires an expensive building process for the necessary plant, estimated at 3.4 million dollars [1]. Civil Engineer A’s method of reducing the overall price is to cut the corners of disposal of the HCl and NaOH byproduct solutions. He initiates the building of two aluminum tanks underground which will hold the separate solutions. Aluminum is a relatively cheap metal and brings the overall cost down significantly. The plant works flawlessly and provides drinkable water for several years to come, earning him praise and a wellrespected reputation. Nearly a decade later, Engineer A travels back to India for an inspection of his electrodialysis plant and to see how community has changed. What he notices is, in seasonal harvest time, most of the nearby crops are withered or nonexistent. He checks the pH of the groundwater in a few puddles and records noticeable variance in acidity. When he reviews the integrity of his plant, he finds significant corrosion occurring on the aluminum tanks holding the hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide.