Dean Krebs just might be responsible for the safe drinking water in your house or the pollutant-free groundwater in your neighborhood. He may be the reason your local river has healthy fish swimming in it, or he could be the one who restored the quality of air in the school down the street. Krebs is an environmental engineer, and if it isn't Krebs himself who's responsible for the things listed above, then it's another person in the same field.
Science and engineering form the cornerstones of environmental work, and because environmental issues are often complex and technical, engineering principles play a significant role in the management and control of most environmental problems.
Air pollution, wastewater, sewage, solid waste and hazardous waste materials all present challenges in their respective treatment and handling. Increasingly stricter limits in almost all-industrial areas have created a need for new technologies necessary to meet the new limits. "Although environmental engineering is a relatively new discipline that only really took off in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it's a discipline that's still evolving and not going to go away," says Krebs. In fact, a 1980 report estimated that there were only 10,000 qualified environmental engineers to fill approximately 16,000 positions.
Twenty years later there's still a gap between the amount of jobs and the engineers available to fill them. Krebs started his college career believing that he wanted to become a mechanical engineer. However, the new field of environmental engineering caught his interest so he switched his courses to include subjects like pollution abatement technology, soil mechanics and microbiology.
A typical workday might find Krebs out in the field helping to install a remediation system. He then might be back in the office working on a computer design model for a water treatment system and later attend a meeting with his project team likely consisting of a geologist, a field technician and a project manager.
Working on anywhere from five to thirty-five projects at one time provides a lot of challenge and variety. "The amount of projects I'm normally working on at one time averages about twenty. I like the variety," Krebs says. "One day I can be out in a field in central Minnesota, and the next I might be at a gas station in the heart of urban Minneapolis."
The types of projects Krebs has worked on include developing technologies that reduce the release of pollutants to the environment, cleaning up existing contaminants or minimizing waste pollutants at their source. He has also been called on to design sewage or wastewater treatment systems that meet legal discharge standards.
His most challenging project so far was a major pipeline leak in rural Illinois. "I worked on the initial site investigation, containment and remediation phases," says Krebs, "and then designed a stream aeration system to remove the hydrocarbons that had entered the stream and were threatening the aquatic life in it. The system was innovative and turned out to not only be effective, but a very cost efficient solution for a potentially major environmental impact."
Virtually every industry impacts the environment in some way, and therefore has a need for environmental corrective action. This means that the types of businesses an environmental engineer could work for are virtually limitless. While the federal, state and local governments continue to be the largest employer of environmental engineers, a growing number of engineers are now being hired by manufacturing, consulting and agricultural/engineering firms. Though in a much smaller number, environmental interest groups also hire environmental engineers to study regulatory trends and give advice on pollution control problems. "I believe things are headed in a much more proactive direction for environmental engineers," says Krebs. "Up until now, much of an environmental engineer's work has been reactive; reacting to spills and other incidents.
But more and more companies are beginning to take the proactive approach to environmental issues. While they are developing their product or service, they are working to solve environmental impact issues that might arise, and need environmental engineers who can be proactive as well." "I love what I do," says Krebs. "I'd encourage anyone who has an interest in engineering and environmental issues to seriously consider becoming an environmental engineer. Start by taking all the science and math courses available in high school and college."
In college, Krebs suggests finding an adviser who teaches in environmental engineering. "A general adviser commonly assigned to incoming freshmen usually has little idea of what is needed for an engineering degree," says Krebs. "Take some initiative and you'll be glad you did." If you enjoy science and challenging problems and are concerned about environmental issues, the field of environmental engineering might be for you.
You may contact Dean Krebs for more information about this career at: E-mail: [email protected]. Further reading: Environmental Careers; A Practical Guide to Opportunities in the 90s by David Warner, Lewis Publishers. Engineering News-Record, A division of McGraw-Hill Co. Published annually. 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York NY 10020
