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Inside the Life of an Environmental Engineer

Tamar Losleben is an environmental engineer at ARCADIS/Malcolm Pirnie in New York City and her area of specialty is water engineering, specifically water treatment. As a project leader for Engineers Without Borders, Tamar has also worked hands on with team members and local communities in constructing water storage, distribution, and purification systems for small villages in developing countries.

Topics:
Data Acquisition Data Acquisition Environmental Monitoring Green Design & Manufacturing Measuring Instruments Remediation Technologies Test & Measurement

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    Transcript

    00:00:06 I think often times the public takes for granted that they have clean water to drink and that they have enough clean water to drink, but that is something that people are working very hard to ensure. We want people to have confidence that that water will be healthy. They don't need to buy bottled water. My name is Tamar Losleben. I am an environmental engineer with Malcolm Pirnie. I work in New York City. Environmental engineering is really where public health and environmental needs meet. Environmental engineers work with cleaning up

    00:00:42 contamination or preventing contamination of the air, soil and water. we study where there could be an impact on the environment or people's health and we create solutions to try and mitigate that impact. [ANNCR] TAMAR'S AREA OF SPECIALTY IS WATER ENGINEERING. SPECIFICALLY, WATER TREATMENT. [Tamar] So I'm here at a friend's house and I'm here to test um lead in the water because often in a these old houses that were built maybe 50 or 100 years ago there's concern about lead in the water. I'm collecting samples to make sure that the water is safe. At Malcolm Pirnie I work on a lot

    00:01:24 of different types of projects. Anything from determining water storage needs or disinfection needs, upgrading drinking water facilities or wastewater facilities. Doing overall master planning. I also look at the sustainability of projects and that is something that we are very much focused on now. [Tamar] I am working on a project in Nassau County Long Island at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment plant... [Shila] we are working with the NY state department of environmental conservation to meet the stricter regulations that they have put on us to remove the proper amount of chlorine and dissolved oxygen

    00:02:03 from the waste water leaving the plant and entering the water bodies. So Tamar is working with us here to monitor the levels of the dissolved oxygen and the chlorine. [ANCCR] WORKING FOR AN ENGINEERING FIRM PROVIDES TAMAR AN OPPORTUNITY TO WORK ON A VARIETY OF PROJECTS AND TO SPEND LOS OF TIME OUTDOORS, WHICH SHE LOVES. I like to start my day outside, whether its running or surfing in the morning or biking to work. My working environment is a mix. I sometimes work in the office...other days I'll head to the field I quite like my hours that I work. It's usually a 40 hour week.

    00:02:42 We're here at Meadow Lake in New York City and I'm taking a sample of the lake water to test for turbidity. I basically want to understand if there are a lot of particles that are suspended in the water. It's about 30, which is higher than what we would want for drinking water, but for swimming and recreational purposes, that's fine. [Tamar] We're in Jackson Heights. This is the little India of NYC. I love it here there's so many cultures, so many colors and reminds me of my childhood. I grew up in India, Kenya and Egypt. There's just so much here. [ANNCR] LIVING IN LARGE INTERNATIONAL CITIES,

    00:03:27 TAMAR HAS SEEN FIRST HAND HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO BALANCE URBAN GROWTH WITH PRESERVING AND PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT. SHE KNEW EARLY ON THAT THIS IS HOW SHE WANTED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. SHE DEVOTES MUCH OF HER TIME TO ORGANIZATIONS LIKE ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDER. [Tamar] People can learn how to make it and reconstruct it and if it breaks it coast about ten or fifteen dollars to make [Colleague] That's a very good solution. That's a very good innovative solution. [Tammar] In El Salvador I worked with a community that built one of them and they're still using it.

    00:03:59 [ANNCR] AS A PROJECT LEAD FOR ENGINEERS WITHOUT BOARDERS TAMAR HAS WORKED HANDS ON WITH TEAM MEMBERS AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN CONSTRUCTING WATER STORAGE, DISTRIBUTION, AND PURIFICATION SYSTEMS FOR SMALL VILLAGES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. TAMAR IS PASSIONATE ABOUT SHARING HER EXPERIENCES WITH LIKE MINDED COLLEAGUES. [Tamar] About half of the population in developing countries lacked access to proper sanitation or even just improved sanitation. They don't have a latrine to use. And one out of six people don't have access to an improved water source. So they are drinking water that could

    00:04:37 potentially make them sick or they could even die from. I know as an environmental engineer that I impact people's lives and hopefully they are healthy because of that. When I work abroad I see the impact directly. You know people, it changes people's lives. They now have a water tap or they are not getting sick and we can talk about it. I can see it. I can see their joy and how thankful they are. [ANNCR] LIKE MANY WATER ENGINEERS, TAMAR FINDS HERSELF BOTH WORKING AND PLAYING IN AND AROUND WATER. We're at Rockaway beach in New York and we're heading out

    00:05:15 to the ocean to see if there's some little waves to catch this morning. When I am surfing I see a lot of marine life. I have seen porpoises and I see whales Pretty big whale, I don't know what kind, but it jumped in the air twice and just went down I also love to uh bike around the city into Central Park along the rivers and I sometimes bring my paints I grew up really intrigued by nature and found that I just had this desire to try and capture some of the beauty. Environmental engineers are very much optimists and I think sometimes we are confused for idealists, but its just that

    00:06:01 we see an issue or something that could be mitigated. Something that is damaging the environment or people and we have ideas of how to solve that problem and it may not be a perfect solutions at first, but we return to the problems and we keep on working on them and I think that is the hope that we have is that things can be better. [ANNCR] ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERS LIKE TAMAR ARE EXPERTS IN AREAS LIKE POLLUTION CONTROL, INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE, HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT, WATER SUPPLY, RADIATION PROTECTION, WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH AND LAND MANAGEMENT. THEY MAY WORK IN ENGINEERING FIRMS,

    00:06:36 UNIVERSITIES, PRIVATE RESEARCH FIRMS, CORPORATIONS, TESTING LABORATORIES, AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES OF ALL TYPES. I would say someone who wants to be an environmental engineer should have an interest in people and in science and be strong in math. We use a lot of chemistry. We do calculations on dosages, on flow rates uh but I think someone who has a strong interest in science and people would be a good environmental engineer. [ANNCR] ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERS TYPICALLY HOLD A BACHELOR OF SCIENCE DEGREE IN ENGINEERING. THIS CAN BE CIVIL, MECHANICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL. MOST CONTINUE AND GET A MASTERS

    00:07:20 DEGREE IN ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING. engineering is a field that has historically been dominated by men but I do see that changing in my generation and I am encouraged by it. My supervisor is a wonderful woman engineer. Great leader. My dream is to work abroad on international water projects to help people get better access to clean, safe, water. Water is a need that is global and I think that need will be there and so will environmental engineers