Environmental Protection and Remediation

Environmental protection and remediation are two sides of the same coin.

Remediation fixes parts of our environment that have been damaged. That means cleaning up a polluted piece of land or a waterway where dangerous industrial chemicals have been dumped, for example, or restoring a forest that has been logged illegally. Sometimes, it can mean rushing to stop an oil or chemical spill and then getting involved in the long process of cleaning up the damage to fish, wildlife, land and water.

Environmental protection is preventing damage to the environment from happening in the first place, or punishing those who do it. That’s a much bigger field than remediation, because it can involve everything from the most immediate response, like patrolling our waterways to make sure that businesses or others aren’t dumping dangerous chemicals into them, writing laws that help protect endangered species. It can mean investigating illegal government or business activities as a newspaper reporter, or working as an advocate to protect our water and air, our land, our wildlife and our climate.

Some jobs in this field—especially at not-for-profit organizations and in government—can be very hard to come by. Not-for-profit organizations have been set up to carry out a mission, instead of simply to make money. Jobs in non-profits can also be very rewarding.

It makes sense to describe jobs in remediation and protection separately because they work differently.

Environmental remediation—the clean-up of land and waterways that have been polluted or damaged is a growing field. Almost all of the actual, hands-on work is done by private companies and their employees. This involves scraping up contaminated dirt and bringing it to special landfills, or, planting special plants that can soak up dangerous chemicals. Pieces of land that have been polluted by dangerous chemicals are usually called “brownfields.” The federal government and New York’s state government are involved in deciding that some brownfields, usually the most contaminated ones, must be cleaned up. These sites are sometimes called “Superfund” sites. But the actual clean-up work is usually done by private companies. Usually, these companies are environmental consulting or engineering firms. New York City also has a brownfields remediation program: The Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation (NYC OER).

Sites and waterways that are less polluted are usually cleaned up because a company wants to develop a property, not because a government agency orders a clean-up. This work is done entirely through private consulting and environmental engineering companies and their employees.

People involved in doing the hands-on clean-up work need to have special training in the federal Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard. (It’s commonly known as HAZWOPER.) They should also have other training and certificates that the federal government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says workers in this field need. These OSHA certificates include a lead-abatement certificate, an asbestos abatement certificate, an asbestos handling certificate, a confined-space certificate, and an OSHA 10-hour construction safety certificate.

In New York City, a program in the Mayor’s OER connects people who’ve gone through training at community workforce development organizations, like the Fortune Society, Saint Nicholas Preservation Corporation and Strive, with companies looking to hire workers in this field. The OER also pays employers for on-the-job training. The people applying for these jobs must have HAZWOPER and other OSHA certifications. Workforce development groups can help train you in these skills.

There are other jobs in this field besides the so-called “construction and material-moving” ones. They usually require at least a college degree and include environmental technicians, hydrologists, environmental engineers and industrial ecologists, business specialists, lawyers, office workers, communications specialists, biophysicists, conservation scientists, microbiologists and others. For more about the wide range of jobs in environmental remediation, check out this helpful article from the federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The environmental protection field—preventing environmental damage from happening and punishing those who do it has two big employers.

Government is the biggest one. The federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency is the biggest employer in this field. The EPA does everything from enforce clean-air laws to investigate new ways to manage waste from large farms. New York State has a similar agency, the Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC). It has offices across New York State, including in New York City and Long Island.

Jobs with the NYS DEC are civil service jobs. Click this link to learn more about how to apply. Here are the basics: For some NYS DEC jobs, you need to take a written civil service test. If you pass, you will then be put on a list, and, when your name comes close to the top of the list, you will be considered for a job. For some NYS DEC jobs, you don’t have to take a separate exam. Your education and experience are enough. But there is still a list you need to get on to get a job with the department. Some jobs at the NYS DEC require no test at all. There’s no list you need to get on. You just need the right education and work experience.

New York City also has a Department of Environmental Protection. Many of the jobs in the NYC DEP are civil-service jobs; applicants might have to take a test in order to apply. Or, if jobs are posted but no tests are available, people can still apply for and get these jobs. Once the tests become available, the people who get these jobs must take these tests (and pass them!)

Not-for-profit organizations are the other big employer in this field. They and their employees can do a wide range of things to help protect the environment. A group called the Environmental Investigations Agency is one example. It investigates environmental crimes and dangers around the world and brings them to the government’s and the media’s attention. Queens’ Newtown Creek Alliance works to protect and restore the borough’s Newtown Creek. The Environmental Defense Fund, a big organization based in Manhattan, lobbies the federal government for laws that protect our climate, our oceans and the air we breathe. It also works with big businesses to help them improve the effects they have on the environment.

New York is home to many large and small not-for-profit organizations that do this kind of work. You can often find their jobs listed on the Idealist.org website. Remember, these organizations need experts and they also need office managers and assistants, tech support people, receptionists, interns, bookkeepers and other staff.) One of the great things about the website is that it allows you to search using terms that make it easy to find jobs in the fields you’re interested in.

Jobs in environmental protection include police officer, program manager, information technology expert, environmental technician, lawyer, marine biologist, dive instructor, ecological technician, public relations specialist, and fish and game warden, among many others.

For more information about the type of jobs available in environmental protection and remediation, and the training and education you might need to work in the field, check out the Environmental Protection page of the Green Careers center at CareerOneStop.org. The federal government put CareerOneStop.org together to help people find work. CareerOneStop.org can also help you learn about salaries and benefits, along with other helpful information.

To begin your job search, visit the websites below. To find environmental engineering and consulting groups in New York City and around the country, you can do an Internet search for “environmental consulting firms” or “environmental engineering firm.” To find a long list of companies that work in the field of environmental remediation, check out the ones on the website of the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Remediation.

Job Boards

American Academy of Environmental Engineers & Scientists

Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors

Idealist.org

Nassau County (Long Island) Department of Health

New York City Office of Environmental Remediation

New York City Department of Environmental Protection

New York State Attorney General’s Office

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Redevelopment & Renewal Magazine

U.S. Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency