Environmental Engineers
Also called Engineer, Environmental Engineer, Environmental Remediation Specialist, or Sanitary Engineer
Updated · Source: O*NET 31.0
What Environmental Engineers do
You design the systems that clean up polluted water, air, and soil, and you check that new projects will not make things worse.
Environmental engineers work on pollution: stopping it, controlling it, and cleaning it up. You might design a treatment system for dirty water, figure out how to safely handle waste, or study a piece of land before a building goes up to see what the project would do to the air, water, and soil nearby. When a site is already contaminated, you advise the company or agency on how to clean it up safely.
Most of the work happens indoors at a desk in a climate-controlled office, with calculations, drawings, and a lot of writing. Reports and recommendations are a big part of the job. You rarely work alone on a problem. You team up with scientists, planners, waste technicians, other engineers, and sometimes lawyers or business experts.
A day in the life
You start with email, catching up on questions from a client and a colleague's notes on a treatment system design. Mid-morning you sit down with a small team to work through why a cleanup plan is running behind, and what to tell management. Then a few quiet hours: running numbers, checking chemistry, reviewing a draft investigation report line by line so the recommendations hold up. After lunch you meet face-to-face with people from the community or a company, explaining in plain terms what the monitoring data shows. You update quality records and safety procedures, like the plan for what happens if something spills. You end by tracking progress against project targets.
This could fit you if you…
- ✓Like figuring out why something is contaminated and how to fix it
- ✓Are comfortable writing clear reports and explaining technical findings out loud
- ✓Enjoy chemistry and math applied to real places
- ✓Want steady teamwork with scientists, planners, and specialists
- ✓Keep records accurate and projects on schedule
You might not like it if you…
- –Want to be outdoors most of the day rather than mostly in an office
- –Dislike writing, reviewing, and documenting your work in detail
- –Prefer to work alone without meetings or public contact
- –Lose patience with rules, regulations, and slow-moving cleanup projects
How people get in
- 1Take as much chemistry, physics, and math as you can in high school, and practice writing clearly.
- 2Earn a bachelor's degree, which is the typical entry-level education here. Useful programs include environmental engineering, water resources engineering (how water is stored, moved, and treated), and geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering (the study of soil, rock, and groundwater under and around building sites).
- 3Get hands-on experience during school through an internship, or a co-op, which is a paid work placement that counts toward your degree, with an engineering or environmental employer, or a government agency. Some of these employers are consulting firms, meaning companies hired by others to solve technical problems.
- 4Build the skills employers lean on most: reading dense technical documents, listening, writing reports, and speaking to people who are not engineers.
- 5Start in a support or junior engineering role, learning from experienced engineers on real cleanup projects.
- 6Later on, many engineers look into getting an engineering license. Ask employers and your school what that path involves where you live.
Who tends to enjoy it
Curious
People who like figuring things out, research, science, and solving problems.
Hands-on
People who like building, fixing, working with tools, machines, plants, or animals.
Organizing
People who like keeping things accurate, orderly, and running on schedule.
Official task list
Environmental Engineers research, design, plan, or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control, and remediation of environmental hazards using various engineering disciplines. Work may include waste treatment, site remediation, or pollution control technology. (O*NET)
- Design, or supervise the design of, systems, processes, or equipment for control, management, or remediation of water, air, or soil quality.
- Assess the existing or potential environmental impact of land use projects on air, water, or land.
- Collaborate with environmental scientists, planners, hazardous waste technicians, engineers, experts in law or business, or other specialists to address environmental problems.
- Advise corporations or government agencies of procedures to follow in cleaning up contaminated sites to protect people and the environment.
- Develop proposed project objectives and targets and report to management on progress in attaining them.
- Monitor progress of environmental improvement programs.
- Prepare, review, or update environmental investigation or recommendation reports.
- Prepare, maintain, or revise quality assurance documentation or procedures.
A typical day involves
Skills that matter most
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Writing
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Monitoring
What you'll need to know
- Engineering and Technology
- Design
- Chemistry
- Mathematics
- Building and Construction
How much Environmental Engineers make
The median pay for Environmental Engineers in the U.S. is $107,110 a year ($51.50 an hour). Most earn between $69,990 and $162,220. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025)
Pay depends a lot on where you live: the median is highest in Louisiana ($130,510) and lowest in Puerto Rico ($77,560).
Pay by state and territory
| State | Median pay | Jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $102,650 | 780 |
| Alaska | $110,220 | 260 |
| Arizona | $93,970 | 690 |
| Arkansas | $85,280 | 210 |
| California | $130,410 | 4,550 |
| Colorado | $106,890 | 1,320 |
| Connecticut | $114,710 | 450 |
| Delaware | $95,720 | 150 |
| Florida | $116,840 | 1,800 |
| Georgia | $96,530 | 830 |
| Hawaii | $107,880 | 150 |
| Idaho | $117,520 | 400 |
| Illinois | $107,990 | 940 |
| Indiana | $92,460 | 520 |
| Iowa | $94,830 | 150 |
| Kansas | $94,070 | 320 |
| Kentucky | $107,520 | 350 |
| Louisiana | $130,510 | 340 |
| Maine | $93,930 | 220 |
| Maryland | $97,570 | 1,030 |
| Massachusetts | $115,800 | 1,880 |
| Michigan | $105,080 | 810 |
| Minnesota | $115,750 | 1,080 |
| Mississippi | $91,100 | 260 |
| Missouri | $98,170 | 510 |
| Montana | $100,140 | 300 |
| Nebraska | $120,620 | 270 |
| Nevada | $109,720 | 290 |
| New Hampshire | $88,610 | 210 |
| New Jersey | $102,630 | 990 |
| New Mexico | $108,360 | 500 |
| New York | $101,270 | 3,170 |
| North Carolina | $99,440 | — |
| North Dakota | $91,370 | 90 |
| Ohio | $113,180 | 730 |
| Oklahoma | $92,090 | 530 |
| Oregon | $127,100 | 650 |
| Pennsylvania | $103,330 | 1,750 |
| Puerto Rico | $77,560 | 110 |
| Rhode Island | $101,140 | 200 |
| South Carolina | $96,140 | 560 |
| South Dakota | $98,890 | 90 |
| Tennessee | $97,190 | 540 |
| Texas | $123,060 | 1,940 |
| Utah | $103,380 | 410 |
| Vermont | $92,580 | 110 |
| Virginia | $104,940 | 1,010 |
| Washington | $125,460 | 1,920 |
| West Virginia | $83,200 | 370 |
| Wisconsin | $89,990 | 890 |
| Wyoming | $106,330 | 200 |
Where to study for this
College programs that commonly lead to this career, and how many US colleges offer each.
- Environmental 171 colleges
- Water Resources Engineering 19 colleges
- Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering 11 colleges
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Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA), occupation 17-2081.00, used under CC BY 4.0 and modified by Whittle. Pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025), SOC 17-2081. Outlook and entry education: BLS Employment Projections 2025–35. Program links: NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. How we build these pages.