The early American engineers didn't, for the most part, start off designing sewerage works; they happened upon the work by either chance or opportunity, or were contacted by the cities/agencies who needed help to resolve sewage problems. The following were considered by many (particularly in hindsight) to be the pioneers of the sewerage design/construction field in the United States:

• E.S. Chesbrough: born 1813 and died in 1886. He started out working as a railroad survey chairman. In 1855, he became the engineer of the Chicago Sewerage Commission. During 1858, he published what became recognized by his peers as the first significant work on sewerage; this contributed to Chicago being the first big American city to design and install a comprehensive sewerage system. He was the 8th President of the ASCE.
• Moses Lane: started work life as a railroad engineer. He was an 1845 graduate of the University of Vermont as a civil engineer. During 1869, he joined with and worked beside Chesbrough in Chicago. He later played an instrumental role in the design of the sewerage systems for Milwaukee and Buffalo. He died in 1882.
• James P. Kirkwood: born in Scotland in 1807. His early work life was with the railroads. In 1855, he undertook the challenge of heading up the reconstruction of the water system in New York City; he later became the chief engineer for the City of Brooklyn waterworks. He was the 2nd president of the ASCE. He died in 1877.
• Col. Julius W. Adams: best known for his treatise on "Sewers and Drains for the Populous Districts" (published in 1880) -- widely used by engineers for 25 years. He convinced the City of Brooklyn to start the Brooklyn Bridge. One of his works -- considered to be the first application of "engineering skills/design standards" to the design of sewers—was finished in 1857 for the sewerage system of Brooklyn, New York. His roots were in the railroad business; he started working with sewerage in 1857 in Brooklyn. He was the 6th president of the ASCE.
• Joseph P. Davis: designed and helped guide the construction of the interceptor sewer system for Boston. This "interceptor" system was the first great undertaking (of its size) in this country. His modesty led him to decline, on several occasions, the nomination for president of the ASCE.
• Edward S. Philbrick: born in Boston in 1827. Initially, he was engaged in railroad and structural engineering -- up to the beginning of the Civil War. In 1860, he began actively working with the Sanitary Commission. His impact on American sewerage practice was that he enjoyed writing about the subject for the press and teaching it to students at the Massachuchetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
• Dr. Rudolph Hering: supervised the construction of various municipal works in Philadelphia, PA. He investigated and planned the reconstruction of many old sewers -- ones that were originally designed to allow ground water to come in (as a source of "carriage" water). Many of these older sewers failed. He did a study on the subject, which was presented at the 1878 annual convention of the ASCE. This was the first (and for many years, the only) meaningful work on the design of sewers—with particular emphasis on their ability to carry external loads.
• D.E. McComb: recognized as the first American engineer who ventured forth to build large-diameter sewers of concrete. He was the superintendent of sewers for Washington D.C. In 1883, under McComb's guidance, a 15x17½-foot concrete sewer (with full brick lining) was designed; it was built in 1885. This sewer was 2500 feet long with a maximum depth of trench of 60 feet. Shortly thereafter, a 10-foot-diameter concrete sewer with full brick lining was also built. The use of concrete for sewer pipe continued in the Washington, D.C., area; the later ones, however, just had their inverts lined with vitrified brick. The primary issue up until the mid-1880s was the quality of the concrete that could be made; McComb's guidance resolved that issue—which led to the use of concrete sewers elsewhere in the United States. Besides, it was found that concrete sewers were less expensive to build than sewers made fully of brick.
• George E. Waring, Jr.: considered by many as a founding father of the public works profession. He began his career in 1833 as an agricultural scientist; he served as drainage engineer for Central Park in New York City in the 1850s. He rose to the rank of colonel during the Civil War while serving with the Missouri cavalry. After the war, he began a career as an agricultural drainage engineer. In 1880, he designed America's first "separate" sanitary sewage conveyance system for the Memphis, TN, area -- after the outbreak of two yellow fever episodes in the area in 1878 and 1879. (NOTE: It was not recognized until many years later that mosquitoes -- not sewage -- were the vector responsible for the spread of yellow fever.) He authored several works -- on agriculture, sewerage drainage, and street cleaning. In 1895, Waring became the Street Cleaning Commissioner for New York City, during which time he created a model solid waste program, providing for the physical removal of abandoned wagons/vehicles from city streets, the creation of a white-uniformed corps of street cleaners (known as the "white wings"), and the recycling of certain components of the refuse stream.

  From the 1880s until his death (ironically, caused by yellow fever contracted in Cuba) in 1898, he was a pioneer pollution combatant who designed and administered public works improvements that rendered cities/towns safer for living.