Environmental engineer??

Question

what is it exactly, what do they do? please give examples

thank u

Answer 1

Hi Morg.  That is my title and I wear alot of different hats.  Most environmental engineers are focused on compliance with federal, state, and local regulations in water, wastwater, industrial waste, and air emissions.  That is what I do.  The term "engineer" however is way over-used.  Actual engineers design or over-see projects in these areas to reduce pollution.  Some "Environmental Engineers" operate the facilities after they are built and may not even have a high school diploma.  So the range is great just looking at a job title.  I do auditing and training to insure that facilities are within the current regulations.  I used to work for a regulatory agency in Texas and developed some of the current regulations  based on the current scientific and environmental data.  The regulations get stricter as time goes by, and actual engineers are necessary to develop ways to build treatment systems to reduce impact on the environment.  There is no simple answer to this question, because the environmental field is very vast.

Answer 2

Environment engineers do a wide variety of things.  A lot of them deal with water treatment as that is very important as far as providing clean drinking water and dealing with wastewater.  So that would encompass working in a water treatment plant, taking measurements and calculating things such as flow rates and bacterial concentrations.  They also deal with air pollution meaning things like what comes out of the smoke stacks of industrial buildings.  There they would measure pollutant concentrations and make sure that their companies are meeting regulations.  Some work for the government enforcing regulations.  Others create garbage dumps accounting for things such as liquid seepage through the soil, pollutant runoff, and managing smells so that people around the dump aren't pissed off.

It is a branch of chemical engineering most of the time but sometimes civil engineers get jobs in the environmental category.  Chemical engineering is not an easy curriculum but it is very rewarding and provides a plethora of job opportunities.