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Career Details

17-3025.00 - Environmental Engineering Technologists and Technicians


Apply theory and principles of environmental engineering to modify, test, and operate equipment and devices used in the prevention, control, and remediation of environmental problems, including waste treatment and site remediation, under the direction of engineering staff or scientists. May assist in the development of environmental remediation devices.


Key Facts
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Bright Outlook
Career Details
Green Job
Career Details
Current Employment
18,600
Estimate
Forecasted Employment
20,400
Estimate
Change in Employment
+1,900
Estimate
Change in Employment %
+10%
Estimate
Tasks
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Tasks
The tasks listed below can be performed to prepare you for a career in this field.
Core
  • Receive, set up, test, or decontaminate equipment.
  • Maintain project logbook records or computer program files.
  • Perform environmental quality work in field or office settings.
  • Review technical documents to ensure completeness and conformance to requirements.
  • Review work plans to schedule activities.
  • Produce environmental assessment reports, tabulating data and preparing charts, graphs, or sketches.
  • Maintain process parameters and evaluate process anomalies.
  • Decontaminate or test field equipment used to clean or test pollutants from soil, air, or water.
  • Prepare and package environmental samples for shipping or testing.
  • Prepare permit applications or review compliance with environmental permits.
  • Record laboratory or field data, including numerical data, test results, photographs, or summaries of visual observations.
  • Collect and analyze pollution samples, such as air or ground water.
Supplemental
  • Obtain product information, identify vendors or suppliers, or order materials or equipment to maintain inventory.
  • Arrange for the disposal of lead, asbestos, or other hazardous materials.
  • Inspect facilities to monitor compliance with regulations governing substances, such as asbestos, lead, or wastewater.
  • Provide technical engineering support in the planning of projects, such as wastewater treatment plants, to ensure compliance with environmental regulations and policies.
  • Improve chemical processes to reduce toxic emissions.
  • Oversee support staff.
  • Assist in the cleanup of hazardous material spills.
  • Work with customers to assess the environmental impact of proposed construction or to develop pollution prevention programs.
  • Perform statistical analysis and correction of air or water pollution data submitted by industry or other agencies.
  • Develop work plans, including writing specifications or establishing material, manpower, or facilities needs.
  • Assess the ability of environments to naturally remove or reduce conventional or emerging contaminants from air, water, or soil.
  • Create models to demonstrate or predict the process by which pollutants move through or impact an environment.
  • Evaluate and select technologies to clean up polluted sites, restore polluted air, water, or soil, or rehabilitate degraded ecosystems.
  • Model biological, chemical, or physical treatment processes to remove or degrade pollutants.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Knowledge
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Knowledge

The items listed below are organized into sections that contain knowledge useful for pursuing a career in this field. Each section also contains a "Percentage of Importance" statistic that shows how relevant an item is to the occupation.
 Engineering and Technology
  • 74%
    Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
 Mathematics
  • 71%
    Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
 Customer and Personal Service
  • 71%
    Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
 English Language
  • 68%
    Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
 Chemistry
  • 67%
    Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
 Mechanical
  • 65%
    Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
 Physics
  • 64%
    Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub- atomic structures and processes.
 Public Safety and Security
  • 63%
    Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
 Education and Training
  • 59%
    Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
 Building and Construction
  • 59%
    Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
 Design
  • 58%
    Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
 Administration and Management
  • 57%
    Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
 Computers and Electronics
  • 57%
    Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
 Biology
  • 56%
    Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
 Production and Processing
  • 56%
    Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
 Law and Government
  • 55%
    Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
 Clerical
  • 53%
    Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
 Geography
  • 52%
    Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Tools
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Tools
The tools listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
 Spectroscopic equipment
  • 13C nuclear magnetic resonance NMR spectrometers
  • Atomic absorption AA spectrometers
  • Fluorimeters
  • Gas mass spectroscopes
  • Liquid mass spectroscopes
  • Plasma spectrometers
  • Proton nuclear magnetic resonance NMR spectrometers
  • Single particle spectroscopes
  • Spectrofluorimeters
  • Spectrophotometers
  • Ultraviolet UV spectrometers
  • Visible spectrometers
 Pumps
  • Aeration pumps
  • Reciprocating pumps
 Pharmaceutical industry machinery and equipment and supplies
  • Aerobic laboratory scale reactors
  • Anaerobic laboratory scale reactors
  • Digester apparatus
  • High-pressure/temperature reactors
 Sampling equipment
  • Air monitoring equipment
  • Airborne particulate samplers
  • Bailers
  • Biological oxidizers
  • Dichotomous particulate matter samplers
  • Groundwater pumps
  • Groundwater sampling equipment
  • Multistage agar impactors
  • Water samplers
  • Water sampling pumps
 Laboratory environmental conditioning equipment
  • Anaerobic laboratory glove bags
  • Heated environmental chambers
 Weight measuring instruments
  • Analytical balances
  • Balances
  • Laboratory scales
  • Pan balances
 Light and wave generating and measuring equipment
  • Argon lasers
  • Interferometeric refractormeters
  • Photometers
 Viewing and observing instruments and accessories
  • Atomic force microscopes
  • Binocular light compound microscopes
  • Camera-equipped microscopes
  • Epifluorescence microscopes
  • Inverted microscopes
  • Optical compound microscopes
  • Phase contrast microscopes
  • Scanning microscopes
  • Scanning probe microscopes SPM
  • Total internal reflection fluorescence TIRF microscopes
  • Transmission electron microscopes TEM
  • Video microscopes
 Electrochemical measuring instruments and accessories
  • Autotitration systems
  • Conductivity meters
  • Dissolved oxygen meters
  • Ion selective electrode ISE meters
  • pH meters
  • Specific ion probes
  • Titrators
 General laboratory glassware and plasticware and supplies
  • Beakers
  • Erlenmeyer flasks
  • Filtering funnels
  • Funnels
  • Glassware adapters
  • Graduated cylinders
 Chemical evaluation instruments and supplies
  • Benchtop nephelometers
  • Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay ELISA plate readers
  • Flame ionization detectors FID
  • Microtox toxicity systems
 Laboratory centrifuges and accessories
  • Benchtop refrigerated centrifuges
  • High-speed centrifuges
  • Microcentrifuges
  • Refrigerated centrifuges
 Laboratory enclosures and accessories
  • Biosafety cabinets
  • Chemical fume hoods
  • Laminar flow hoods
 Soil measuring equipment
  • California bearing ratio CBR testing devices
  • Differential mobility analyzers
  • Soil expansion testers
  • Soil particle size testers
  • Soil permeability testers
  • Soil samplers
  • Soil vapor sampling equipment
 Liquid and solid and elemental analyzers
  • Carbon analyzers
  • Soil carbon-nitrogen CN analyzers
  • Streaming current detectors
  • Titrimeters
  • Total organic carbon TOC analyzers
  • Toxicity analyzers
  • Water quality monitors
 Computer data input devices
  • Dataloggers
  • Flatbed scanners
 Computers
  • Desktop computers
  • Mainframe computers
  • Notebook computers
  • Personal computers
 Laboratory heating and drying equipment
  • Dessicator chambers
  • Heating mantles
  • Hot plate stirrers
 Cameras
  • Digital cameras
 Fluid mechanics equipment
  • Drop volume tensiometers
  • Dynamic contact angle apparatus
  • Flow injection analyzers
  • Liquid scintillation equipment
  • Scintillation counters
 Laboratory electrophoresis and blotting system and supplies
  • Electrophoresis equipment
  • Electrophoresis tanks
  • Fraction collectors
  • Gel documentation systems
  • Zeta meters
 Laboratory baths
  • Fecal coliform constant temperature shaker baths
  • Water baths
 Water treatment and supply equipment
  • Filter press simulators
  • Turbidimeters
  • Ultrafiltration cells
 Chromatographic measuring instruments and accessories
  • Gas chromatographs GC
  • High pressure liquid chromatograph HPLC with ultraviolet/visible UV/Vis absorbance detectors
  • Ion chromatographs
  • Low pressure liquid chromatographs with fraction collectors
 Laboratory decanting and distilling and evaporating and extracting equipment and supplies
  • Glassware condensers
  • Rotavapors
  • Supercritical fluid extractors
  • Universal fractionators
  • Water distillation units
 Audio and visual equipment
  • Global positioning system GPS receivers
 Safety apparel
  • Hazardous material protective clothing
 Laboratory incubating equipment
  • Incubator shakers
  • Incubators
 Laboratory pumps and tubing
  • Laboratory centrifugal pumps
  • Laboratory vacuum pumps
  • Peristaltic pumps
 Laboratory ovens and accessories
  • Laboratory ovens
  • Mechanical convection ovens
 Laboratory mixing and stirring and shaking equipment and supplies
  • Laboratory shakers
  • Magnetic stirrers
  • Mixer mills
  • Two-vortex mixers
 Computer printers
  • Laser printers
 Laboratory water purification equipment and supplies
  • Low pressure reverse osmosis water treatment systems
  • Ultra pure water systems
 Swimming pool and spa equipment and supplies
  • Ozone bubble contactors
  • Ozone generators
 Gas analyzers and monitors
  • Ozone concentration percentage meters
  • Respirometers
  • Surface area analyzers
  • Thermal conductivity detectors
  • Total organic halide analyzers
 Filters
  • Particulate filters
 Crystallography equipment
  • Simultaneous static and dynamic light scattering systems
 Test Tubes
  • Test tubes
 Hydrological instruments
  • Water level recorders
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Technology
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Technology
The technologies listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
 Content authoring and editing software
  • Adobe Systems Adobe PageMaker
  • Microsoft ExcelHOT
  • Microsoft PowerPointHOT
  • Microsoft WordHOT
  • Photogrammetric software
  • Presentation software
  • Spreadsheet software
  • Word processing software
 Industry specific software
  • Air dispersion modeling software
  • ANSYS
  • Autodesk AutoCADHOT
  • Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3DHOT
  • Bentley MicrostationHOT
  • Computer aided design and drafting CADD softwareHOT
  • Continuous emission management software
  • DHI Water and Environment MIKE SHE
  • Ecological risk assessment software
  • Environmental health and safety documentation software
  • Fugitive emission leak detection software
  • Gas dispersion model software
  • Greenhouse gas management software
  • Hazardous materials management HMS software
  • HEC RAS
  • Hydrologic simulation program fortan HSPF software
  • Insightful S-PLUS
  • Laboratory information management system LIMS
  • LINDO
  • Maplesoft Maple
  • Material safety data sheet MSDS software
  • Mathsoft MathcadHOT
  • Microscopic image capturing software
  • Neural network modeling software
  • PerkinElmer Turbochrom
  • Regulatory compliance management software
  • RockWare MODFLOW
  • Rockwell Automation Arena
  • SASHOT
  • Scientific Software Group MIGRATE
  • Simulation software
  • Simultaneous location and mapping SLAM
  • Site remediation management software
  • SofTech CADRAHOT
  • Statistical software
  • Stochastic modeling software
  • Stormwater runoff modeling software
  • The MathWorks MATLABHOT
  • Thermal indoor climate simulation software
  • Visual MODFLOW Pro
  • WAM software
  • Waste management software
  • Water flow modeling software
  • Wind flow modeling software
  • Wolfram Research Mathematica
  • XP Software XPSWMM
 Development software
  • C++HOT
  • Formula translation/translator FORTRAN
  • National Instruments LabVIEWHOT
  • PythonHOT
 Data management and query software
  • Database software
  • GAEA Technologies WinSieve
  • Microsoft AccessHOT
  • Structure query language SQL
 Information exchange software
  • Email software
  • ESRI ArcGIS softwareHOT
  • Geographic information system GIS softwareHOT
  • Geomechanical design analysis GDA software
  • Microsoft OutlookHOT
  • Soil mapping software
 Content management software
  • Gel documentation software
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server MOSS
 Network applications software
  • Internet browser software
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Certifications
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Certifications
FastForward at Virginia's Community Colleges is a short-term training program for high-demand industries, like healthcare, information technology, and skilled trades and infrastructure, helping Virginians get the jobs and salaries they need. Our goal is to get you trained, help you earn your certification, and get you into a career that can support you and your family. Explore the latest training program offerings by visiting FastForward
The certifications listed below are useful to pursue if you are interested in a career in this field.
 Specialty
 Advanced
 Core
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Licensing
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Licensing
The licensing information below is organized into sections and is useful for pursuing if you are interested in a career in this field.
No specific licensing information is listed for this occupation in the area you have selected.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Related Programs
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Programs related to this career, offered by participating institution(s), are listed below.

Clicking on the Degree programs in the list below will take you away from the Careers page.
INSTITUTION
PROGRAMS
Appalachian College of Pharmacy
Germanna Community College