DuPont’s Environmental Efforts (1943-1945)
The Manhattan Project hired the DuPont Company to design, build, and operate the Project’s plutonium production facilities in 1942. Crawford Greenewalt, a DuPont chemical engineer, adopted a radically new approach to environmental monitoring. Influenced by Ruth Patrick’s ecosystem approach, Greenewalt initiated monitoring of air and water quality, flora, and fauna to determine the impacts of Hanford’s operations on the environment.