A number of concerns and issues will affect employment trends in the air and water quality fields:
- The 1990 Clean Air Act amendments focus on seven topics (or titles) identified as major pollution concerns or regulatory guidelines aimed at keeping air pollution in check:
Title II: Reducing Motor Vehicle Emissions: Automobile emissions account for the largest share of urban pollution. Cleaner running vehicles and a greater dependence on public transportation are two goals.
Title III: Controlling Airborne Toxic Emissions: Using pollution control technology, chemical manufacturers, refineries, dry cleaning operations, and many others must reduce their output of toxic and dangerous airborne substances.
Title IV: Preventing Acid Rain: Using pollution control technology, energy utilities that discharge sulfur dioxide must cut their emissions in half by the years to come.
Title V: Creating Incentives: Polluters will be charged $25 per ton of pollutants emitted. The aim is to create a monetary incentive to reduce emissions and to fund cleanup programs with the revenues Title VI: Closing the Ozone Hole: Calls for the phasing out of ozone depleting chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) and HCFC's by the year 2000.
Title VII: Increasing Enforcement: Adds enforcement personnel, raises fines, and makes it a felony to willfully violate any provision of the Clean Air Act.
- Groundwater Contamination: As methods to measure groundwater quality improve, scientists are finding that much more of the nation's groundwater is contaminated than previously believed and that much of the existing groundwater data is incorrect. Because more than half of the nation's drinking water is derived from underground sources (as opposed to surface water, such as lakes and reservoirs), this poses a serious threat to water supplies and public health. In addition, the number of hazardous waste sites such as the 10,000 EPA Superfund sites, former military bases, and solid waste landfills are all potential threats to groundwater drinking supplies. The monitoring and cleanup of these sites will create employment opportunities for thousands of air and waste scientists and technicians.
- Wetland Loss: In spite of efforts to protect wetlands, the United States is losing from 200,000 to 300,000 acres of vital wetlands per year. These areas are important fish and bird breeding grounds, and also act as natural pollution filters. There are increasing efforts by federal, state, and local governments, as well as nonprofit organizations, to purchase and protect wetlands, return former wetlands back to their natural state, and construct artificial wetland areas. These efforts have created employment opportunities for water quality specialists in this area.
- The Conservation Directory (annual). Written and published by the National Wildlife Federation. Contains listings and descriptions of federal agencies, and nonprofit and international organizations involved in air and water issues.
- The New Complete Guide to Environmental Careers (1993). By the Environmental Careers Organization and published by Island Press. Included are separate chapters on air and water quality management. This is an excellent companion to this book because it concentrates on the effects of federal regulations on the job market, gives tips to getting started in a career, and gives profiles and case studies of companies and employees.
