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Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Conduct research or perform investigation for the purpose of identifying, abating, or eliminating sources of pollutants or hazards that affect either the environment or public health. Using knowledge of various scientific disciplines, may collect, synthesize, study, report, and recommend action based on data derived from measurements or observations of air, food, soil, water, and other sources.

Related: Conservation Scientists Environmental Compliance Inspectors Environmental Engineers Environmental Science & Protection Technicians, Including Health Industrial Ecologists

Industries: Government Professional, Science, & Technical

Summary
Details

Design or direct studies to obtain technical environmental information about planned projects.
Plan or develop research models, using knowledge of mathematical and statistical concepts.
Communicate scientific or technical information to the public, organizations, or internal audiences through oral briefings, written documents, workshops, conferences, training sessions, or public hearings.
Evaluate violations or problems discovered during inspections to determine appropriate regulatory actions or to provide advice on the development and prosecution of regulatory cases.
Monitor effects of pollution or land degradation and recommend means of prevention or control.
Process and review environmental permits, licenses, or related materials.
Collect, synthesize, analyze, manage, and report environmental data, such as pollution emission measurements, atmospheric monitoring measurements, meteorological or mineralogical information, or soil or water samples.
Monitor environmental impacts of development activities.
Research sources of pollution to determine their effects on the environment and to develop theories or methods of pollution abatement or control.
Supervise or train students, environmental technologists, technicians, or other related staff.
Design or direct studies to obtain technical environmental information about planned projects.
Develop programs designed to obtain the most productive, non-damaging use of land.
Develop the technical portions of legal documents, administrative orders, or consent decrees.
Review and implement environmental technical standards, guidelines, policies, and formal regulations that meet all appropriate requirements.
Provide scientific or technical guidance, support, coordination, or oversight to governmental agencies, environmental programs, industry, or the public.
Provide advice on proper standards and regulations or the development of policies, strategies, or codes of practice for environmental management.
Develop methods to minimize the impact of production processes on the environment, based on the study and assessment of industrial production, environmental legislation, and physical, biological, and social environments.
Monitor effects of pollution or land degradation and recommend means of prevention or control.
Analyze data to determine validity, quality, and scientific significance and to interpret correlations between human activities and environmental effects.
Conduct environmental audits or inspections or investigations of violations.
Supervise or train students, environmental technologists, technicians, or other related staff.
Investigate and report on accidents affecting the environment.
Prepare charts or graphs from data samples, providing summary information on the environmental relevance of the data.
Conduct applied research on environmental topics, such as waste control or treatment or pollution abatement methods.
Determine data collection methods to be employed in research projects or surveys.

Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.

Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.

Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Customer and Personal Service
- 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.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Geography
- 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.
Engineering and Technology
- 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.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Administration and Management
- 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.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Public Safety and Security
- 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.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
Chemistry
- 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.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Physics
- 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.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

88670/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

42.63/hr

Currently Employed

4,560

Yearly Projected Openings

510

Investigative: People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out. They do well at jobs that need:

Integrity
Analytical Thinking
Attention to Detail
Cooperation
Dependability
Adaptability/Flexibility

Air samplers or collectors
All terrain vehicles tracked or wheeled
Anemometers
Coliwasas
Colorimeters
Combustible or hazardous gas detectors for power generators
Desktop computers
Digital cameras
Dosimeters
Electromagnetic field meters
Explosimeters
Flow sensors
Flowmeters
Gas chromatographs
Global positioning system GPS receiver
Heat stress monitors
Ion analyzers
Ionization chambers
Laboratory bailers
Leak testing equipment
Liquid scintillation counters
Logging instruments for water wells
Mainframe computers
Manometers
Mass spectrometers
Moisture meters
Multi gas monitors
Nephelometers
Notebook computers
Oil content monitors analyzers
Open stream current meters
Ozone analyzers
Personal computers
Photometer
Portable data input terminals
Precipitation or evaporation recorders
Psychrometers
Radiation detectors
Radon detectors
Recreational motorboats
Sample preparation bombs
Single gas monitors
Soil core sampling apparatus
Soil testing kits
Sound measuring apparatus or decibel meter
Spectrometers
Spectrophotometers
Temperature transmitters
Toxicology test kits or supplies
Turbidimeters
Viscosimeters
Water analyzers
Water samplers
pH meters

Analytical or scientific software
Compliance software
Computer aided design CAD software
Data base user interface and query software
Development environment software
Document management software
Electronic mail software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Geographic information system
Graphics or photo imaging software
Internet browser software
Map creation software
Object or component oriented development software
Office suite software
Presentation software
Project management software
Spreadsheet software
Word processing software

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Environmental Scientists and Specialists, Including Health

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