ABSTRACT
Environmental practitioners are concerned with a broad range of environmental and public health issues related to everyday activities and natural occurrences that lead to environmental degradation, such as the creation of wastes, emissions, and resource depletion. By another name, these are risks. Environmental risk managers protect human health and the environment by
• Controlling and preventing air pollution emissions • Supporting Homeland Security programs by investigating ways to decontaminate buildings • Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through new technologies • Identifying and reducing water quality and availability issues • Protecting groundwater • Providing technical support on below-ground pollution and ecosystem restoration • Determining which oil spill dispersants are best • Helping communities achieve growth goals, improving residents’ quality of life, and
enhancing financial and environmental sustainability • Working on soil and sediment contamination issues • Cleaning up waterways to make them usable for drinking, swimming, and fishing • Providing choices for managing wastes • Helping communities with their land use decisions • Identifying consequences of technology changes and presenting sustainable alternatives • Analyzing product processes or services and their adverse impacts and recommending
greener choices • Demonstrating practices that meet the needs of the present without compromising the abil-
ity of future generations to meet theirs • Developing approaches and tools to monitor, treat, protect, and restore impaired waterways • Improving drinking water and wastewater systems
Environmental practitioners accomplish these tasks by working with outside organizations to design, develop, and evaluate technologies and methods; by providing assistance to develop and apply environmental technologies; and by incorporating cost-effective techniques that lead to successful pollution prevention and control strategies.
