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Reemah
Student
Rock Hill, South Carolina
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Information on environmental engineering?
Dose environmental engineering involves math and if it does what kind of math does it involve?
What should I major in if I want to be an environmental engineer?
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Aaron Escamilla
Mining Technology Developer
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Gilbert, Arizona
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Aaron’s Answer
Hi This is a difficult questions because it's yes/no to the math question and it's "almost anything" for the which major to pick. I've done environmental engineering for years and the first thing to be aware of is there are many facets to this. I hope I can break down a few concepts to understand here before I directly try to answer:
1) All industries have what we call the consulting side and corporation side of things. When you work for the big company, you still do technical stuff but often for the really nitty gritty, expert knowledge type stuff....you get a consultant involved. The consultant has often handled many projects like this so they guide you, sometimes have prebuilt math to work through for you, etc. So...for your math question...it kind of depends which side you end up on out of college. Lots of engineers start off consulting doing grunt work (going out in the field, running low level reports and calculations) then they get trained up in to more complex things. Lots of people either keep moving up in consulting or use this to negotiate a nice job on the corporation side of things.
2) Environmental Engineering in the US has two levels and sometimes three levels of law. National (EPA), State Law, local. Depending what industries you want to be in...you may have to deal with some more than others. Some companies really care if you're familiar with their state laws. Lots of companies don't see my environmental work in Nevada as relevant to Arizona for example when it comes to handling permits.
3) Environmental can be industry specific but the main mediums are "water", "air", "waste." You may end up handling all 3 if you work on the corporation side, or just handling 1 if you're consulting.
4) You often fall into either a technical path (numbers, special engineering projects, field work) or a "compliance" side which is more interpreting permits, laws,...working with your team of lawyers to ensure the company doesn't make changes that would put them at risk of being fined, etc.
In general, Math is good. Numbers matter to the EPA when they do audits, investigations, etc but usually most things are prebuilt or you have the help of software. It helps to be good enough at math to identify when you're seeing a number that just doesn't look right. Super awesome if you can fix it but you have coworkers or consultants to lean on if you don't know how.
Which major? This is tough. You can do a general Environmental Engineering major at some universities. This gives you good solid technical skills. On the other hand, you could study hydrology if you know you only want to deal with water related environmental. You could study Biology if you want to do more conservation type work. You could study chemical engineering if you want to focus specifically on the oil industry or other types of chemical companies for environmental work.
I'd recommend shadowing people from different types of environmental backgrounds. It is very very broad.
1) Try to network with other environmental engineers on Linkedin, etc. Ask them what types of things they do
2) Decide if there's a type of environmental you're passionate about. It's ok if you like it all also. I have always been more of a generalist myself.
3) Think about which majors are most applicable to the environmental work you like. For example, if you want the more general projects/ technical routes, then doing the Env. Eng. B.S. might be the way to go.
4) Consider industries you're interested in. Mining, chemical, oil, waste management, etc.
1) All industries have what we call the consulting side and corporation side of things. When you work for the big company, you still do technical stuff but often for the really nitty gritty, expert knowledge type stuff....you get a consultant involved. The consultant has often handled many projects like this so they guide you, sometimes have prebuilt math to work through for you, etc. So...for your math question...it kind of depends which side you end up on out of college. Lots of engineers start off consulting doing grunt work (going out in the field, running low level reports and calculations) then they get trained up in to more complex things. Lots of people either keep moving up in consulting or use this to negotiate a nice job on the corporation side of things.
2) Environmental Engineering in the US has two levels and sometimes three levels of law. National (EPA), State Law, local. Depending what industries you want to be in...you may have to deal with some more than others. Some companies really care if you're familiar with their state laws. Lots of companies don't see my environmental work in Nevada as relevant to Arizona for example when it comes to handling permits.
3) Environmental can be industry specific but the main mediums are "water", "air", "waste." You may end up handling all 3 if you work on the corporation side, or just handling 1 if you're consulting.
4) You often fall into either a technical path (numbers, special engineering projects, field work) or a "compliance" side which is more interpreting permits, laws,...working with your team of lawyers to ensure the company doesn't make changes that would put them at risk of being fined, etc.
In general, Math is good. Numbers matter to the EPA when they do audits, investigations, etc but usually most things are prebuilt or you have the help of software. It helps to be good enough at math to identify when you're seeing a number that just doesn't look right. Super awesome if you can fix it but you have coworkers or consultants to lean on if you don't know how.
Which major? This is tough. You can do a general Environmental Engineering major at some universities. This gives you good solid technical skills. On the other hand, you could study hydrology if you know you only want to deal with water related environmental. You could study Biology if you want to do more conservation type work. You could study chemical engineering if you want to focus specifically on the oil industry or other types of chemical companies for environmental work.
I'd recommend shadowing people from different types of environmental backgrounds. It is very very broad.
Aaron recommends the following next steps:
I appreciate this, thank you for the advice.