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EVEN Option: Remediation


Many locations have been contaminated by past activities, including both intentional and accidental releases of chemicals and toxic wastes. These sites require investigation to characterize the concentrations and locations of contaminants in the soil and groundwater, a risk assessment to estimate the health hazards of the contamination to humans and the ecosystem, and strategies to clean-up the site and return it to safe utilization. The worst of these sites in the U.S. are called "Superfund" sites. Clean-up of these locations is overseen by the US Environmental Protection Agency. States oversee clean-up of many other sites. In Colorado, for example, many sites are being cleaned up under the Voluntary CleanUp (VCUP) process. Many of these sites can be rehabilitated to enable use for businesses and industry. This type of work is termed "brownfields" restoration.

Jobs in this area include:
     site characterization by collecting samples of soil, groundwater, sediment, surface water, air, and biota
     working with toxicologists, biologists, etc. to conduct human health and ecological risk assessments
     working with regulatory agencies, citizen groups, etc. to develop target concentrations for clean-up
     designing methods to clean-up the sites, including in situ and ex situ treatment; these can include chemical, biological, and phyical methods
     using modeling software to predict the fate and transport of contaminants at the site
     operation and maintenance of remediation equipment at contaminated sites

OPTION COURSES

Students select a minimum of 9 credits from the following:
CVEN 4474 Hazardous and Industrial Waste Management, including regulations, toxicology and risk assessment, and remediation methods; team projects
CVEN 4353 Groundwater Engineering
EVEN 4100 Environmental Sampling and Analysis; can also be used as an air/earth lab/field course
GEOL 3030 Introduction to Hydrogeology
GEOL 4716 Environmental Field Geochemistry

Research: Prof. Joe Ryan assists in remediation of abandoned mines: Link to full story

Research: Professor Silverstein studies methods to prevent and treat acid mine drainage, CV link
Research: Professor Bielefeldt studies methods to remediate contaminated sites, Website link

Companies that Specialize in Remediation:

CH2M Hill, rated top Environmental firm by Engineering News Record, 2007; EVEN alumni here
Bechtel
Shaw Group, consultants
Washington Group Inernational, consultants, esp. sites contaminated with radioactive wastes
URS Corp, consultants
Tetra Tech, consultants
Parsons, consultants
Montgomery, Watson, Harza, consultants
Black & Veatch, consultants
Earth Tech, consultants
Battelle
Arcadis, consultants
Environmental Quality Management, consultants
EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, consultants
Terracon, consultants
Geomatrix, consultants
LT Environmental, Inc, consultants, Arvada, CO; EVEN alumni here



LINKS

Air and Waste Management Association
Federal Remediation Technologies Roundtable, technical information on technologies for waste site cleanup
Wikipedia Environmental Remediation article
Environmental Protection, online journal
      2007 job survey results
Remediation Journal

Example 4-year course Plan -- Remediation Option 2008-2009

Courses offered only semester shown ®

 
         
First Year Fall
Credits
 
First Year Spring
Credits

APPM 1350 Calculus 1 for Engineers
4
  APPM 1360 Calculus 2 for Engineers
4
CHEN 1211 General Chemistry
3
  GEEN 1400 Engineering Projects
3
CHEM 1221 General Chemistry Lab
2
  H&SS Elective II
3
EVEN 1000 Intro to Environ Engr
1
PHYS 1110 General Physics 1
4
GEEN 1300 Intro to Engr Computing
3
  Technical Elective I - recommend GEOL
3
H&SS Elective I
3
   

 
16
 
 
17
         
Second Year Fall
Credits
 
Second Year Spring
Credits

APPM 2350 Calculus 3 for Engineers
4
  APPM 2360 Intro Diff Eqns Lin Alg
4
CVEN 3414 Fund of Environ Engr
3
  CHEM 4521 Phys Chem for Engrs
3
Solid Mechanics - rec. CVEN 2121
3
  CHEN 2120 Matl & Energy Balances
3
PHYS 1120 General Physics 2
4
  H&SS Elective IV
3
PHYS 1140 Experimental Physics 1
1
  Fluid Mechanics - Rec CVEN 3313
3

 
15
 
 
16
         
Third Year Fall
Credits
 
Third Year Spring
Credits

CVEN 3454 Water Chemistry
4
  CVEN 4424 Environ Organic Chem
3
Engineering Economics
3
  Heat Transfer - rec. MCEN 3022
3
Probability & Statistics - rec. CHEN 3010
3
  CVEN 4484 Intro Environ Microbiology
3
Required Communication Course
3
  MCEN 4131 Air Pollution Control
3
Thermodynamics - rec AREN 2110

3

  H&SS elective III
3

 
16
 
 
15
         
Fourth Year Fall
Credits
 
Fourth Year Spring
Credits

Option Course I - rec. CVEN 4474

3

  CVEN 4434 Environ Eng Design
3
CVEN 4444 (5834) Env Eng Processes
3
  Air/Earth Science Lab/Field Course - rec EVEN 4100

3

H&SS Elective V
3
  CVEN 4333 Engineering Hydrology
3
Option Course II - rec. CVEN 4353
3
  Option Course III
3
Technical Elective II
3
  Technical Elective IV / Senior Thesis
3
Technical Elective III / Senior Thesis
3
     

 
18
 
 
15
         
     

Total Credits:

128

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Note: a more complete layout of the curriculum is shown here