Environmental Engineering

1. What topics does Environmental Engineering cover?

drinking water treatment - ensure an adequate quantity of safe, high quality water
wastewater treatment - prevent negative environmental impacts of the discharged water and
handle residuals generated, such as biosolids that can be used as fertilizer
air quality - design processes to prevent industrial emmissions of air pollutants
surface water quality - prevent degradation of the quality of water in rivers and lakes, so that
natural populations of aquatic life and human uses can be maintained
solid waste - landfill design, recycling, destruction processes
RCRA hazardous waste - treatment of currently generated hazardous industrial wastes
CERCLA hazardous waste - clean-up of past contaminated sites
Industrial Waste Minimization/Treatment
Health and Safety
Permitting
2. What skills provide the tools and foundations for Environmental Engineers:
chemistry (physical, organic, aquatic),
microbiology and biology,
energy and mass transfer,
ecology
The application of engineering principles, under constraints, to protect and enhance the quality of
the environment and to protect and enhance public health and welfare.
constraints = money, political pressure, space, technology, etc.
History:
Before 1968, there was only sanitary engineering or public health engineering as types of
engineering. In 1968 true environmental engineering with a total view to air, water, and soil
quality was born. In the U.S, the environmental engineering profession is driven largely by
regulations (many of which came about as a result of public pressure). These regulations are
primarily at the Federal level, as developed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); states
also have their own sets of environmental regulations. In some cases, the state regulations may be
more stringent than the federal limits (example: California air quality standards). The continual
development of new technology is also changing the face of environmental engineering.
Drinking Water Treatment milestones
2000 B.C. India - water heated, boiled, or filtered to remove impurities
1450 B.C. Egypt - tomb drawing shows water treated by sedimentation/clarifying
1852 London, England passes law requiring all drinking water to be filtered
1854 London, Dr. Snow traced a cholera epidemic to a city well
1914 U.S. Public Health Service - law for max bacterial plate count
1974 SDWA specific concentration limits for all water supplies serving more than 25 people or
having more than 15 servic connections
Case examples of water treatment challenges:
Oxford Junction, Iowa: both lead (from pipes) and pesticide (from crop run-off into
groundwater) contamination of water; where to spend money first?
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Crytosporium in drinking water infects the population; conventional
treatment processes that kill bacteria not effective (also an on-going struggle in Austrailia)
Primarily interested in removing taste & odor causing compounds and killing harmful bacteria and
viruses in the water. Chlorine is the most commoly used method to kill harmful bacteria; however,
this can have a negative side-result in the formation of chlorinated organics which are carcinogenic.

Wastewater Treatment
early 1800s wastewater first collected
late 1800s - early 1900s systematic wastewater treatment
1948 US Federal Water Pollution Control Act -> led to regulations on the quality of effluent from
the wastewater treatment plants that could be discharged into lakes and rivers
Wastewater plants remove organics and nutrients such as N and P from the water.
Quantity approx. 600 L/capita-day (inc. industrial flow)
Air Pollution Control
1307 King Edward I banned burning of coal in lime kilns (due to resulting smoke problems)
1881 Chicago and Cincinnati pased antismoke ordinances
1948 smog episode in Donora, Pennsylvania (near Pitts), weather combined with steel mill, wire
mill, and zinc mill effluents resulted in 1 week of severe smog (visibility so poor drove with
headlights on during the day) 26 died, 6000 ill
1948 London, England 700-800 air pollution related deaths
1952 London, England severe smog episode lasted 5 days, during which 4000 people died
(U.S. passed Clean Air Act of 1955)
(result: British passed Clean Air Act of 1956)
1956 London air poll. 1000 deaths; 1957 700-800; 1959 200-250; 1962 700; 1963 700 deaths
1963 New York 200-400 people died of air pollution
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION - anti-smoking laws
Solid Waste Disposal
In rural areas an average of 1.0 kg of solid waste/capita-day is generated; in cities this
amount is 1.6 kg/capita-day.
Where to put all the waste? Landfills are rapidly becoming full, and land is an increasingly valuable
commodity. Incinerators to burn the waste are unpopular with the public.
Hazardous Waste Treatment and Contaminated Site Remediation
RCRA and CERCLA are the two primary federal regulations pertaining to hazardous waste. These
regulations define a hazardous waste (as distinct from non-hazardous solid or liquid wastes) on the
basis of the chemical properties of the waste. Properties of concern are flammability, reactivity,
corrosivity, and human toxicity.
It is estimated that in the U.S. about 425,000 sites are in need of some degree of clean-up.
These locations were contaminated by past activities and include Federal Department of Energy and
Department of Defense Sites (including Rocky Flats and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal; about 110
DOE sites and 17,000 DOD sites), gas stations where underground storage tanks have leaked fuel,
and numerous industrial sites. The estimated cost to clean these sites to a safe level (in terms of
the risk posed to human health and the environment) are on the order of $700 billion.
One example of the remediation work conducted by environmental engineers is in Kuwait, where in
1991 in the Gulf War, Iraqi army exploded oil storage tanks causing massive spills into the Persian
Gulf and set fire to Kuwaiti oil wells. The result was that discharged oil formed over 300 oil lakes
covering >49 km2 land (12,100 acres) and contained an estimated 9 million cubic meters of oil (2.38
billion gallons). Aerial fallout of the oil covers several hundred square kilometers, with >25 million
cubic meters contaminated soil (0.88 billion cubic feet). One methods being investigated to clean-up
the contamination are bioremediation methods (such as landfarming). These methods exploit the
ability of naturally occurring soil bacteria to eat the components in the oil and convert them to
harmless carbon dioxide, water, and more bacteria.

Industrial Waste Treatment and Waste Minimization

RCRA
1984 Bhopal, India Union Carbide >2000 people die from accidental release of methyl isocyanate;
result EPCRA in US
Radioactive Waste
Largely present due to nuclear weapons (especially wastes that were generated in the waste
to build the first atom bomb, before we had a full understanding of radioactive waste) and byproducts from nuclear reactors used to generate energy.
WIPP and Yucca Mountain - U.S. attempts to develop permanent locations to store the waste until
the hazard due to the radioactivity naturally decays away
Low Level Wastes - generated from hospitals, research, etc. To be handled in state-run locations.
What you might do as an environmental Engineer:
1. Work for Regulatory Agencies such as U.S. EPA or State Department of Natural Resources
review remedial designs submitted by consulting engineers and determine adequacy
negotiate clean-up standards with state, local, and responsible parties
help acquire data to support changing in-force regulations pertaining to the environment
2. Work for a consulting firm (examples: CH2M Hill, Montgomery Watson)
conduct site assessments: on-site sampling, data reduction
work with environmental scientists and toxicologists to develop risk assessments
design remediation or treatment facilities
design plant upgrades, process optimization
3. Work for industry
in-plant waste minimization studies
company in-house designs for waste treatment
4. Work at a National Laboratory or research facility (such as Battelle or a university)
design and test new strategies for waste treatment
Linda Huff chemical engineer and president of Huff and Huff, Inc., a sixteen-person
environmental engineering consulting firm. We work with a variety of clients ranging from industry
and transportation to individual communities and private developers. We focus on all types of
environmental problems: air emissions, underground storage tanks, groundwater and soil
remediation, hazardous waste management, training of industrial personnel in hazardous waste and
hazardous materials regulations, and measurement and abatement of noise. ...we employ a
biologist, geologist, a hydrologist, a historian, 4 civil engineers, a mechanical engineer, and another
chemical engineer. For a small firm, we have great diversity in both personnel and projects. BS
Chemical Engineering, MBA;
References:
Al-Awadhi, N., R. Al-Daher, A. ElNawawy, and M. Balba. 1996. Bioremediation of Oil-Contaminated Soil in
Kuwait. Journal of Soil Contamination. 5(3): 243-260.
Huff, Linda. 1997. In: Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering. Temple Univ Press. Phil. p. 223-227.
Ray, B. T. 1995. Environmental Engineering. PWS Publishers, Boston.
Sincero, A. & G. Sincero. 1996. Environmental Engineering: A Design Approach. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Vesilind, P. A. 1997. Introduction to Environmental Engineering. PWS Publishers, Boston.
Good web-site: www.epa.gov

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING IQ TEST (at the end of your 4-year CE degree with an
environmental emphasis, the following questions will be easy)
1. If I find DDT in fish flesh it is a fact that the DDT is a pollutant but a judgement that it is a
contaminant. TRUE
FALSE
2. Which of the following are never considered pollutants?
a) organisms such as bacteria and viruses
b) organic chemicals
c) energy such as heat or noise
d) all can be considered pollutants under some circumstances
3. Which of the following would be considered the most chronic effect of pollution?
a) a massive die-off of fish in a lake due to oxygen depletion under the ice (winter kill)
b) eggshell thinning in eagles due to insecticide exposure
c) the death of birds due to oil on their feather from an oil spill
d) death of people from chlorera associated with contaminated water
4. Rain is naturally acidic. True False
5. Which of the following is NOT one of the 2 major acids involved in acid precipitation?
a) nitric acid b) carbonic acid
c) sulfuric acid
6. Photochemical smog results from an interaction between nitrogen oxide, peroxyacyl nitrates
(PANs), and which of the following:
a) ozone
b) sulfuric acid
c) methane
d) oxygen
7. Primary wastewater treatment is primarily a biological treatment process. True False
8. What does BOD stand for?
a) biological order diversity
b) biochemical oxygen demand
c) biomass of dinoflagellates
d) biodegradable organic density
9. Which of the following phases of sewage treatment produces the least amount of sludge?
a) a trickling filter used in secondary treatment
b) activated sludge used in secondary treatment
10. Chlorine is used in wastewater treatment to do which of the following:
a) remove the ammonia
b) reduce the phosphorus
c) kill bacteria
d) bleach the water to clarify it
11. Which of the following is not one of the primary goals of municipal wastewater treatment:
a) remove materials in sewage so that the wastewater will not support bacteria growth
b) remove materials in sewage so that the wastewater will not support algae growth
c) remove toxic substances like pesticides from the wastewater
d) destroy pathogenic microorganisms
12. DDT and its metabolites are no longer found in the U.S. environment because DDT was banned
from use in the early 1970s TRUE FALSE
13. match the chemicals to pollution events occurring in the areas listed
Minimata Bay, Japan
a) oil
e) mercury
Chernobyl, USSR
b) DDT
Bhopal, India
c) radiation
Prince William Sound, Alaska
d) isocyanate
14. Which of following is not a significant environmental impact of the Aswan Dam in Egypt?
a) increased incidence of human disease
b) enrichment of the Mediterranean Sea near the mouth of the Nile River
c) salt build-up in the soil down river from the dam
d) erosion of the Nile delta region
15. Which of the following is an example of non-point source pollution?
a) effluent from a sewage treatment plant
b) pesticides running off farm fields and entering a river
c) air pollution from a coal burning power plant