Environmental Engineer Research, design, plan, or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control, and remediation of environmental hazards using various engineering disciplines. Work may include waste treatment, site remediation, or pollution control technology.
Environmental Engineer is Also Know as
In different settings, Environmental Engineer is titled as
- Air Pollution Control Engineer
- Engineer
- Engineering Consultant
- Environmental Engineer
- Environmental Remediation Specialist
- Hazardous Substances Engineer
- Sanitary Engineer
Education and Training of Environmental Engineer
Environmental Engineer is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Environmental Engineer
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Education Required for Environmental Engineer
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
Degrees Related to Environmental Engineer
- Bachelor in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
- Bachelor in Water Resources Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Water Resources Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Water Resources Engineering
- Bachelor in Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering
- Associate Degree Courses in Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering
- Masters Degree Courses in Environmental/Environmental Health Engineering
Training Required for Environmental Engineer
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Environmental Engineer in different industries are
- Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health
- Water/Wastewater Engineers
- Environmental Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Environmental Science and Protection Technicians, Including Health
- Brownfield Redevelopment Specialists and Site Managers
- Environmental Compliance Inspectors
- Industrial Ecologists
- Civil Engineers
- Water Resource Specialists
- Conservation Scientists
- Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators
- Nuclear Engineers
- Environmental Restoration Planners
- Hydrologic Technicians
- Health and Safety Engineers, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors
- Chemical Engineers
- Agricultural Engineers
- Petroleum Engineers
- Occupational Health and Safety Specialists
- Hydrologists
What Do Environmental Engineer do?
- Prepare, review, or update environmental investigation or recommendation reports.
- Obtain, update, or maintain plans, permits, or standard operating procedures.
- Provide technical support for environmental remediation or litigation projects, including remediation system design or determination of regulatory applicability.
- Monitor progress of environmental improvement programs.
- Inspect industrial or municipal facilities or programs to evaluate operational effectiveness or ensure compliance with environmental regulations.
- Provide administrative support for projects by collecting data, providing project documentation, training staff, or performing other general administrative duties.
- Develop proposed project objectives and targets and report to management on progress in attaining them.
- Advise corporations or government agencies of procedures to follow in cleaning up contaminated sites to protect people and the environment.
- Advise industries or government agencies about environmental policies and standards.
- Inform company employees or other interested parties of environmental issues.
- Assess the existing or potential environmental impact of land use projects on air, water, or land.
- Assist in budget implementation, forecasts, or administration.
- Develop site-specific health and safety protocols, such as spill contingency plans or methods for loading or transporting waste.
- Coordinate or manage environmental protection programs or projects, assigning or evaluating work.
- Serve as liaison with federal, state, or local agencies or officials on issues pertaining to solid or hazardous waste program requirements.
- Prepare hazardous waste manifests or land disposal restriction notifications.
- Develop or present environmental compliance training or orientation sessions.
- Develop, implement, or manage plans or programs related to conservation or management of natural resources.
- Assess, sort, characterize, or pack known or unknown materials.
- Request bids from suppliers or consultants.
- Provide environmental engineering assistance in network analysis, regulatory analysis, or planning or reviewing database development.
- Design, or supervise the design of, systems, processes, or equipment for control, management, or remediation of water, air, or soil quality.
- Direct installation or operation of environmental monitoring devices or supervise related data collection programs.
- Prepare or present public briefings on the status of environmental engineering projects.
- Write reports or articles for Web sites or newsletters related to environmental engineering issues.
- Collaborate with environmental scientists, planners, hazardous waste technicians, engineers, experts in law or business, or other specialists to address environmental problems.
- Provide assistance with planning, quality assurance, safety inspection protocols, or sampling as part of a team conducting multimedia inspections at complex facilities.
- Prepare, maintain, or revise quality assurance documentation or procedures.
Qualities of Good Environmental Engineer
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Tools Used by Environmental Engineer
- Air incubators
- Air velocity meters
- Ambient air measurement devices
- Anaerobic growth chambers
- Argon ionization detectors
- Atomic absorption AA spectrometers
- Atomic absorption AA spectrophotometers
- Autoclaves
- Automatic titrators
- Balances
- Biological oxidizers
- California bearing ratio CBR testing devices
- Capillary electrophoresis systems
- Centrifuges
- Charge-coupled device CCD cameras
- Chemostats
- Colorimeters
- Combustible gas meters
- Conductivity meters
- Consolidometers
- Core drill rigs
- Desktop computers
- Direct shear testing devices
- Dissolved oxygen meters
- Electric pumps
- Electron capture detectors ECD
- Environmental probe systems
- Epifluorescence microscopes
- Flame emission detectors
- Flame ionization detectors FID
- Flow meters
- Fluorescence detectors
- Fluorescence spectrophotometers
- Freeze dryers
- Fume hoods
- Gas chromatographs GC
- Gas meters
- Geoprobes
- Global positioning system GPS receivers
- Glove box systems
- Graphite furnaces
- Headspace autosamplers
- Hydrological current meters
- Incubators
- Individual burner air measurement IBAM probes
- Interferometeric refractormeters
- Ion chromatographs
- Laboratory ovens
- Laser photometers
- Limnological core loggers
- Limnological coring drills
- Liquid chromatography detectors
- Liquid ring pumps
- Liquid scintillation counters
- Luminometers
- Mass spectrometers
- Mercury/hybrid atomizers
- Microbics toxicity analyzers
- Microwave digestion instruments
- Mud rotary drills
- Multi gas detector tubes
- Multiparameter water quality instruments
- Nitrogen oxide burners
- Notebook computers
- Nutrient analyzers
- Organic carbon analyzers
- Ozonators
- Particle counters
- Particulate filters
- pH meters
- Photometer
- Pitot tubes
- Plasma-mass spectrometers
- Respirometers
- Sample concentrators
- Sampling pumps
- Sampling trains
- Scanning potentiostats
- Seismographs
- Shakers
- Soil carbon-nitrogen CN analyzers
- Soil electrical conductivity measurement devices
- Soil modulus failure testing devices
- Soil-erodability testing devices
- Solid shear failure testing devices
- Sorbent tubes
- Spectrophotometers
- Stem augers
- Stormwater samplers
- Supercritical fluid extractors
- Surface area analyzers
- Thermal conductivity detectors
- Thermal/catalytic oxidizers TCO
- Thermocouples
- Total organic carbon TOC analyzers
- Trace metal analyzers
- Ultraviolet UV light detectors
- Ultraviolet water purification systems
- Universal fractionators
- Water level recorders
- Wave gauges
- Whole air canisters
Technology Skills required for Environmental Engineer
- Air dispersion modeling software
- ANSYS simulation software
- Autodesk AutoCAD
- Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D
- Bentley MicroStation
- C++
- Computer aided design and drafting software CADD
- Computer aided design CAD software
- Continuous emission management software
- DHI Water and Environment MIKE SHE
- Ecological risk assessment software
- Eko
- Environmental health and safety documentation software
- ESRI ArcGIS software
- ESRI ArcView
- Finite element method FEM software
- Formula translation/translator FORTRAN
- Fugitive emission leak detection software
- Gas dispersion model software
- Geographic information system GIS systems
- Geomechanical design analysis GDA software
- Greenhouse gas management software
- Hazardous materials management HMS software
- HEC-RAS
- Hydrologic simulation program fortan HSPF software
- Image analysis software
- Insightful S-PLUS
- LINDO Systems optimization modeling software
- Maplesoft Maple
- Material safety data sheet MSDS software
- Microsoft Access
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Project
- Microsoft Word
- Oil mapping software
- Photogrammetric software
- Python
- Regulatory compliance management software
- RockWare MODFLOW
- Rockwell Automation Arena
- SAS
- Simulation software
- Simultaneous location and mapping SLAM
- Site remediation management software
- SofTech CADRA
- Stormwater runoff modeling software
- The MathWorks MATLAB
- WAM software
- Waste management software
- Water flow modeling software
- Wind flow modeling software
- XP Software XPSWMM