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What career paths can I follow with an environmental engineering degree?

I want to get an idea of what I might be doing in the future and base some of my classes on the careers I am interested in.

engineering engineer environmental-science environmental-engineering environmental
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Donald’s Answer

Based on 30+ years in Environmental Engineering, the following career paths come to mind. In industry, identifying and instituting solutions to environmental problems and guiding development of environmental solutions for proposed operations.
Developing and marketing pollution control technology.
In government,

Donald recommends the following next steps:

Also in government, studying potential environmental problems and solutions. And
And permitting new facilities and monitoring performance.
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Aaron’s Answer

Environmental is a constantly growing field and the main branches for most companies to worry about are Air, water, waste, lands. lands can often include biodiversity. Now you’ll find people from all sorts of walks in each of these environmental groups and often find people who have done a little of all of them. As a geologist I started off in water because they needed my hydrology expertise for all the wells we monitored and I got trained on water sampling etc. Chemical engineers could end up something more in water for water sampling or waste if lots of chemical disposal is involved etc. this is pretty general in how most companies work. The consulting side is different. Those are the guys the companies call to help fix messes or conduct studies. On the consulting side you’ll need to consider obtaining an EIT then PE status for your state. Not as necessary if you work on the corporate side of the line of liability.

To give you one example of what you could do, I ended up in a gold roaster at one point covering air, water, and waste. There wasn’t much for water except some wells we monitored. Most ground was “contained” so even if a chemical was spilled, it spilled on sealed concrete so there was not reportables for water permits. The main thing was chemical waste or used oil disposal and air discharge. We had to conduct stack testing to make sure we were filtering all harmful things from our air discharges for example. Also when upper management said things like…”let’s increase production…” I’d have to meet with all the production engineers and determine if that was possible without surpassing our air permit limits. Otherwise, it was a no go and tough conversation with management. Waste wise, it was a lot of handling shipment of waste containers (chemical byproduct of the process, used oil from the truck shop, etc). Then it was handling annual reports to the EPA and state regulatory agency. That’s just a general idea of an environmental engineer’s day on the non-consulting side.
Thank you comment icon Thanks, can't wait to put this advice into action! Kaylan
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Lynn’s Answer

Too many options to list, really.

I started as an engineer for a government regulatory agency. Some of the people I worked with stayed in the government their entire careers. I was in air pollution control but you can work in wastewater or hazardous waste management or site cleanups. You can take a position that keeps you in the office reviewing reports or one that takes you out in the field, dealing with the regulated companies.

I moved into consulting where I worked for a series of smaller firms that allowed me to work on a wide variety of projects (air, water, waste, regulatory reporting, health and safety). I also got involved in sales. There are huge consulting firms where you can specialize in a particular area if that's what you want.

I also worked in the remediation field, mainly selling services but also managing mold, asbestos, hazardous waste and underground storage tank projects.

You need to look at yourself and determine what you like then you can pursue a career that fits your personality. Like meeting with new people and learning about numerous regulations and how they're applied? Maybe a small consulting firm. Like just working by yourself? Plenty of opportunities in big firms or government agencies that allow you to do that.

If you REALLY like meeting people, look into a sales position. You need to learn all the same regulations, but you spend your time letting people know what the regulations are and how your firm can help.

Best of luck to you

Lynn recommends the following next steps:

The next step, of course, is investigating what you want or would like to do. There are books/websites that can help you do that. There are people at your school who want to help you. Use every resource you can find.
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Mrinalini’s Answer

This really sound a great and one of a kind areas you have chosen. Now you need to know what is your area of interest in this, Air, Water or Land.
You can easily get jobs in Government sectors, Environmental societies and communities, Production and chemical factories, Energy production firms, Waste management organisations, pharmaceutical industries, etc. So I would say choose your area and you can easily get through it with a bright future ahead.
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Brianne’s Answer

There are certainly lots of opportunities in various government and state agencies for an Environmental Engineer. If at some point you decide you may want to work in the chemical/petrochemical industry, your better bet is to get a degree in Chemical Engineering, and then go into your company's Environmental Department. Just some food for thought.
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Davis’s Answer

Lot's of opportunities for Environmental Engineers in the chemical industry. Here are some examples of efforts underway that you could be part of: https://www.cpchem.com/sustainability
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