Undergraduate Environmental Engineering Degree Program

What is environmental engineering?

Identify and design solutions for environmental problems

Environmental engineers are the technical professionals who identify and design solutions for environmental problems. They apply their knowledge of math, physics, chemistry, and biology, and engineering problem solving skills for the protection of human health and the environment. Environmental engineers provide safe drinking water, treat and properly dispose of wastes, maintain or improve air quality, control water pollution in rivers and lakes, cleanup contaminated land and water resources, and help industry minimize pollution, among many other activities. They work on local, regional, and global environmental problems.

There are lots of jobs for students studying environmental engineering. We tell prospective students who inquire about this issue that they need to ask themselves whether they believe the American people (and the rest of the world) will continue to demand a clean environment. Also, the reality of population pressures and neglect of our infrastructure the past few decades have created many employment opportunities. As an example, the market for the design, construction, and operation of drinking water treatment plants and wastewater treatment plants plus management of watersheds is estimated to be $120 billion over the next 15 years.

To put this figure in perspective, the largest environmental engineering consulting firm in the U.S. only does around $1 billion of work a year. Another example indicating the strong future demand for environmental engineers is based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the General Accounting Office estimate that the cleanup market for over 200,000 polluted soil and groundwater (contaminated mainly by gasoline, jet fuel, and solvents) is $187 billion. In addition, the U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments, designed to improve the quality of our Nation's air, are finally being implemented after being passed in 1990.

Clearly, our Nation will need many well-educated environmental engineers to respond to the public's demand for cleaner air, water, and land. Michigan Tech Environmental Engineering will prepare you for this contribution to society and the environment.

Excellent preparation for a career in environmental engineering comes from a balance between classroom education and practical experience. Our students have one of the highest co-op rates on campus (because of demand and their great motivation and interest) and most have some sort of summer internship.

Our students look for jobs by a variety of methods, including using our university career center but also using regular mail, phone calls, and just stopping in to visit people over break because not all of our employers come to campus to recruit. For example, one of our students wanted to obtain an internship in Alaska this past summer. She asked our faculty for advice, then found a summer job in environmental engineering by tracking down a copy of the Anchorage yellow pages and making some phone calls to perspective employers. Links to Co-ops, internships, and study abroad

Learn about Great Lakes water issues

Learn about environmental problems in your community

Learn about the global water crisis

As for salaries we always caution students to not focus too much of your college major and career decision on starting salaries. The fact is that you should select a major for what interests you and gets you excited. After all, payday only comes around two times a month but most Americans work 8+ hours per day. With this in mind, recent starting annual salaries for undergraduate environmental engineers are approximately $32,000-$45,000/year for those working for engineering consulting firms and state government. Federal government (for example Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corp of Engineers, Department of the Interior, etc.) pays $35,000-$45,000/year, and students working in industry are starting at $42,000-$55,000/year.

Our university salary report for co-op students lists environmental engineering as one of the highest paid hourly salaries with students receiving over $14/hr. In addition, the 1996 U.S. Engineering and High-Tech Salaries Survey reported that the average annual salary for environmental engineers is $55,000 for individuals with 2-6 years of experience and $64,700 for those with 7+ years of experience. Interestingly, these salaries are higher than all other engineering disciplines including civil, computer, mechanical, electrical, and chemical.

Our students do a wide range of activities upon graduating with a baccalaureate degree in environmental engineering. These include:

• Manage a large company. It seems like most big companies want one or more of their upper management to come out of the environmental area.
• Make, interpret, and enforce environmental regulations working for state government, such as Michigan DEQ or the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
• Manage/restore a watershed for a large metropolitan city in order to protect their drinking water supply and protect the local ecosystem.
• Work for industry (e.g., GM, Ford, Dow, 3M, Marathon Oil, National Steel, Texas Instruments, Alcoa). Here students manage the operation and maintenance of a factory's pollution control equipment (water, wastewater, air), safely manage solid and hazardous waste, prevent workers from being exposed to hazardous chemicals, work with chemical and mechanical engineers to prevent pollution and produce products that are more environmentally safe, and, meet with state and federal government to decide what are allowable amounts of chemicals to discharge into the environment
• Work for local and city government setting up recycling programs, operating and managing drinking water plants, wastewater plants, and landfills for our solid waste. You could also be involved in restoring and managing a local watershed. Another option is to take an airport design class as an elective and work for an airport authority.
• Work for an engineering consulting firm designing and constructing plants to treat drinking water and wastewater and the associated sewers and water distribution systems, predict down wind concentrations of air pollutants for companies attempting to obtain air permits, develop a solid waste management plan, clean up contaminated soil, groundwater, river and lake sediments, restore abandoned urban sites to viable business or community green spaces, use computer simulation models to predict downwind concentrations of air pollutants and how pollutants move and degrade or persist in a river after discharge.
• Get a teaching certificate and teach K-12 science or math or environmental studies.
• Start your own business.
• Utilize natural wetlands as a method to treat wastewater.
• One environmental engineer whom we know works for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and visits resorts in northern Minnesota that use lake water to drink and clean with. She ensures that their small treatment systems are in compliance with health and aesthetic water quality guidelines and, if not, assists them in meeting the guidelines.
• Restore the integrity of damaged surface waters. Examples of current projects include restoration of the Florida Everglades back to their original flow path and water quality (this is estimated to be a $7 billion project), restoration of the Sydney, Australia harbor in time for the 2000 Olympics, and restoration of large parts of the Hudson River that are contaminated with PCBs.
• Work on a Native American reservation planning, designing, and constructing water treatment and wastewater treatment units and dealing with water quality issues.
• Work for the US Army Corps, US Geological Survey, US Forest Service, or Department of Interior managing our Nation's water resources.
• Work with local communities to restore "brownfields" (old, rundown industrial areas that are often contaminated with metals and organic pollutants) to some type of activity (industrial, commercial, parks) that benefit the local community.
• Use a complex computer model to predict downwind air concentrations from knowledge of local meteorological conditions, the height of the smokestack, and information on the gas exiting the stack (e.g., temperature and velocity).
• Work out West allocating water and preserving water quality amongst a group of stake-holders including agricultural, recreational, expanding suburbs, and nature.
• Take some of your technical electives in construction management and go into construction or take some electives in transportation engineering and plan safe and environmentally friendly transportation systems.
• Two billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water. Three billion people breathe unhealthy air. So you could work in the developing world on environmental problems including providing large cities and small villages with a safe supply of water, erosion control, or managing a watershed. In addition, others work with the Agency of International Development (AID) and the United Nations working on global environmental issues (e.g. global warming) or local issues (e.g. air pollution problems in mega-cities like Cairo or the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras). (we could provide international links to unep.org or CARE)
• Several of our graduates go on to law school every year; they want to be environmental lawyers. Some have even successfully completed Medical School. They find that their engineering degree serves as a solid foundation for law or medicine.
• Collect lake and sediment samples, have them analyzed in a laboratory for various physical, chemical, and biological parameters; then construct a complicated computer model that allows an individual to make management decisions on the clean up or use of this water.
• Work for an environmental group (Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation) or industrial trade organization. In this position you would be attempting to influence environmental regulations and also working to educate the public on environmental issues.
• Each year several of our undergraduates go directly on to graduate school (most get a full ride which means paid tuition and fees and a $14,000-$20,000/year stipend). Our graduates are in big demand by the 80+ U.S. environmental engineering graduate programs. In fact, when we track our alumni by surveys, we find that approximately 50% have received some type of advanced degree and this percentage is growing.
• Some of our professors and graduate students have assisted NASA in the design and operation of the water treatment system used in the international space station.
• With your graduate degree you can work in the area of environmental research with either government or industry. Some governmental options include working with NASA on global environmental problems, working with EPA on air, soil, surface water problems, working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Great Lakes water issues, or working with the Department of Agriculture on protecting groundwater and lakes and rivers from pesticide and fertilizer runoff.
• Go on for your doctoral degree and become a professor at a university (many of our graduates have done this and work throughout the country). Most are in the area of civil/environmental engineering but we have one graduate who has a PhD in government and also is a university professor.
• Our graduates also go to graduate school for other areas. For example, some have gone on for their MBA and specialized programs related to urban planning in the developing world, oceanography, and natural resources management and environmental policy.

Our curriculum is designed so you will complete your degree in four years. Our students take first and second year math, engineering science, physics, and chemistry like other engineering majors. This is the strong foundation for their engineering degree. After this, our students take much more basic science compared to other engineering students (biology – occupational health, toxicology, environmental microbiology; and chemistry – organic and some physical chemistry; and environmental sciences). We then provide students some breadth in civil engineering (soils engineering, construction management, and water resources engineering) and then offer breadth in environmental engineering (air quality and atmospheric science; groundwater; drinking water and wastewater treatment plus sewer and collection systems design; solid and hazardous waste management including environmental regulations; pollution prevention; and, lake and river water quality).

Students then top this off by choosing several electives to specialize in one or more of the above engineering areas (for some depth) or select their electives in business, environmental policy, or computer science. They also take a senior design project to culminate their studies. In addition, students also have an option to conduct research in our laboratories and receive credit for a baccalaureate thesis. We have attached a table to this letter that shows the environmental engineering curriculum.

We have a large number of nationally recognized and student-friendly faculty. We have listed several faculty you will meet in our program in the table below. Note that our large number of environmental engineering faculty and faculty outside our department allows us to provide breadth and depth in our program. We also have excellent laboratory facilities and we just received funding from the National Science Foundation and several corporate sponsors to construct a two-story unit operations laboratory (small-scale drinking water and wastewater treatment plants) where students will receive hands on experience to go with the theory learned in upper level environmental design classes.

The senior engineering design projects are real world and we typically collaborate with practitioners. In 1999-2000, we had a group of 15 students enter a national environmental design contest being held in Las Cruces, New Mexico in early April (that year we got a second place award! One year we took first place!). Students worked on a problem (see Environmental Design Contest)  for 20 weeks and competed against teams from more than 50 other universities.

Michigan Tech is a national leader in environmental engineering education, we are typically ranked in the top 4 nationally in terms of numbers of environmental engineering graduates, and we were recently recognized as one of the nation's premier programs by U.S. News & World Report. While our faculty are nationally recognized, they are very accessible to students. Our faculty typically keep open office hours, and they accompany students on field trips and participate in social activities.

Our new textbook Environmental Engineering Fundamentals (sold on Amazon.com – just submit a search for Dr. Mihelcic's last name) is taking off after two years in press. It is already used by close to 30 universities and has been translated into Spanish. In addition, Drs. Crittenden and Hand are currently working on writing the premier drinking water treatment textbook.

In addition, several of our faculty have received prestigious educational grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation for developing innovative classes and laboratory experiences. This includes a "state-of-the-art" unit operations laboratory as we mentioned earlier. As a student, you will be immersed in a state-of-the-art curriculum. We also have many faculty involved at the national level on environmental engineering education and professional accreditation issues. Many of our students also work in our research laboratories during the school year and summer (we have over 50 graduate students in our program). Class sizes range from 10-15 for a laboratory, 10-15 for a senior design class, and perhaps 25-45 for an advanced level course. Our student body is also diverse. For example, the environmental engineering freshman class is typically 50% female and students come from many states and countries.

In addition, though employers want graduates with a strong technical education, they also want students who have demonstrated leadership, innovation, written and oral communication skills, and the ability to work in teams. Fortunately, Michigan Tech has lots of opportunities for students to work on these important skills in class and out of class. Our Corporate Relations Office often comments how industrial representatives love Michigan Tech's environmental engineers for their strong technical background, their interdisciplinary approach to solving problems, and their wide range of non-technical skills. In fact, some companies such as Marathon Oil and General Motors only recruit environmental engineers from Michigan Tech and perhaps one other university.

Our students are involved in a wide variety of campus activities including sports, the university radio station, acting, music, writing for the student newspaper, or working for Habitat for Humanity. Our students are truly wonderful individuals who love their profession and life at Michigan Tech. In fact, many faculty around campus mention they want to teach our students because they are such a pleasure to have in class. In addition, we have two very active student professional societies, a student chapter of the Michigan Water Environment Association (MWEA) and Society for Environmental Engineering (SEEn). These two groups coordinate many field trips, social and community events, and bring in professional speakers. As an example, two years ago, about 20 students traveled to Milwaukee with two faculty on a 2-day field trip. Last spring three faculty traveled with 15 students to Madison, Wisconsin for a 3-day field trip. This fall 3 faculty traveled to Duluth and up the North Shore for 3 days.

Environmental Engineering is housed on the 8th floor of the new Environmental Science and Engineering Building, which overlooks Portage Lake and the university ski hill. This building has world-class laboratory and teaching facilities, in addition to many excellent public spaces for relaxing and working with friends and faculty. Our department computer labs are excellent and are located in Dillman Hall which is connected to our building.

As for driving to Houghton and Michigan Tech, we are located 8 hours north of Chicago, 4 hours east of Duluth, 5 hours from Madison, and 6.5 hours to the Twin Cities. It takes 8-10 hours to drive here from the Detroit/Toledo area. We are located on the Keweenaw Peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior. Michigan's Upper Peninsula only has a population of about 300,000 so there are lots of uncrowded outdoor activities up here. In fact, the university maintains its own downhill ski facility (currently lighted and with snow-making capabilities) which is in view of our building. We also have cross-country skiing facilities. We have easy access to Lake Superior, the Sylvania Track Wilderness Area, several National and State Forests, the largest wildlife refugee east of the Mississippi (Seney, located about 3 hours east of here), two National Parks (Isle Royale and Pictured Rocks Lakeshore), and countless miles of beach, trails, and rivers. Skiing, canoeing, snowboarding, hiking, biking, fishing, camping and climbing are some of the activities our students routinely enjoy. The surrounding area is truly an outdoor paradise. If you also like great indoor activities like concerts and plays, we are very excited about our new Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts (check out upcoming performances at Arts Center) and the historic Calumet Theatre. It is also easy to walk safely around town and campus, and a bike path runs behind our building along the lake. Michigan Tech is also located in the safest college town in Michigan and the 8th safest in the U.S. in a study of 467 cities and towns that have a college with 5,000 or more students (Crime at College: The Student Guide to Personal Safety). The small, college town atmosphere of Houghton is abundant with friendly, laid-back people.