HISTORY OF AIR AND WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT
There has been a tendency for people to think that certain resources are free and limitless, and this has most certainly been the case with two of our most precious resources: air and water. Up until the middle of the present century, there were virtually no federal or state regulation regarding either air or water purity. Between the start of the industrial revolution in our nation, around 1800, and the implementation of most of our environmental regulations in the 1970s, a great amount of damage was done to these vital resources. Today, we are faced with the duel task of sharply reducing the amount of pollutants discharged into the environment and cleaning up the environmental mess accumulated during the past two centuries.
Before the 1960s there was little public information about the dangers of chemicals and other compounds and only a handful of laws regulating air and water. In 1962 Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a book that systematically described the dangers of the pesticide DDT. Only when people finally understood that the food that they were placing on their tables was literally poisoning their children, was there a public outcry that led directly to many of the federal air and water pollution regulations of today. Within the span of just a few years after Silent Spring's publication, several federal laws were created, including the Water Quality Act (1965) the Clean Water Restoration Act (1966), the Air Quality Act (1967), the National Environmental Policy Act (1969), and the Water Quality Improvement Act (1970). Today more than 35 federal and many hundred state laws govern air and water safety.
There are still vivid memories of cities like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Love Canal, New York; and Newark, New Jersey, where people lived under toxic clouds of assorted airborne pollutants and on top of ground oozing with hazardous waste. In the summer of 1970, a passerby flicked a cigarette butt into a Ohio river, and it immediately caught fire and burned for several hours. Lake Erie, one of the majestic Great Lakes, was pronounced biologically dead in 1972. Today, the Ohio River has been cleaned up: commercial fishing has returned to Lake Erie, and the air above Pittsburgh is among the cleanest of major cities.
We have made great strides in cleaning up these and many other pollution problems, but the question that still haunts us, are environmental conditions re-ally much better today? The answer is that we face a whole new set of pollution challenges but with a better understanding of air and water quality approaches through experience and improved technology. Work in the air and water quality sciences is an evolutionary process and the workers of today will help solve our past pollution problems and help prevent any future damage.
MAJOR EMPLOYERS
Air Quality
The majority of air quality personnel are employed in the private sector. Much of the work of private companies is tied directly to the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. The areas of air pollution control that the government considers most important are: improving air quality standards, reducing motor vehicle emissions, controlling airborne toxic emissions, preventing acid rain, and controlling the ozone hole.
Heavy manufacturers, such as refineries and chemical and plastics companies, are hiring air quality scientists and technicians to monitor their airborne outputs and devise methods of trapping more pollutants. Automobile manufacturers need more air quality engineers and scientists to upgrade emission standards. In the chemical industry, research on the effects of thousands of chemicals compounds requires the services of thousands of air quality professionals. In particular, the search for alternatives to chlorofluro-carbons (CFCs), the major contributor to the destruction of the ozone layer, requires the work of many air quality personnel. The domestic market for the manufacture of air pollution control equipment is growing. While foreign companies have produced most of this equipment in the past, American companies have doubled their output, from $5 billion to $10 billion during the past few years, creating thousands of new jobs. Many consulting firms do contract work for the federal, state and local governments. With the strengthening of most air quality standards, the employment outlook for air quality scientists and technicians in consulting firms is excellent.
In the public sector, air quality professionals work to establish, enforce, and conduct research on air quality standards. Most federal responsibility falls on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA's Air and Radiation Division employs most federal air quality personnel. State air control agencies are rapidly expanding their staffs to keep up with state-level regulatory reforms, which in many cases are more stringent than federal pollution standards. Local air pollution agencies hire a large number of air quality technicians as inspectors, and field and laboratory technicians.
Water Quality
The breakdown of employment in water quality is almost evenly split between the private and public sectors. In the private sector, groundwater professionals are employed by large-and medium-sized manufacturing companies that have installed and maintain their own groundwater treatment plants. Engineers, hydrologists, chemists, and technicians all work at these facilities. Private companies also run drinking and wastewater facilities in communities around the country. In addition, consulting firms offer water quality professionals excellent employment opportunities. These firms design and construct water treatment facilities and run private laboratories that provide a range of water-testing services.
Water quality personnel are employed at all levels of government. The EPA is the largest employer of water quality personnel in the federal government, but employment opportunities are available at the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Soil Conservation Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Army Corps of Engineers. According to the amendments in the 1987 Clean Water Act responsibility for water has shifted from the federal government to state and local governments. State governments are hiring many professionals in enforcement and testing, while local governments need personnel to run drinking and wastewater treatment facilities.
In the nonprofit sector an unusually large number of organizations are involved with clean water issues. A Ralph Nadar brainchild, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), has a chapter in each state with members working specifically on clean water issues. A number of foundations fund groups concerned with water quality.
In both air and water quality, there are employment opportunities in higher education. Most state colleges, universities, and private institutions support programs such as geology, meteorology, chemistry, hydrology, civil engineering, and geophysics where a large number of air and water quality faculty teach and conduct research.
