Introduction to Environmental Engineering

What you'll learn

• Describe the scope of environmental engineering, apply sustainability and life-cycle thinking, distinguish guidelines, standards and permit limits, and compute loads from flows and concentrations.
• Convert between mass, molar and equivalent concentrations, report results as an element or as CaCO₃, apply stoichiometry, and use pH, pKa, the carbonate system, alkalinity and hardness.
• Write mass balances on control volumes, solve mixing problems, and predict concentrations in completely mixed and plug flow reactors at steady state and after a step change.
• Apply zero-, first- and second-order rate laws, half-lives and temperature corrections, estimate rate constants from data, and use the Chick-Watson disinfection model.
• Interpret physical, chemical and microbiological water quality parameters, calculate BOD₅ and ultimate BOD, and compare analyses with US national drinking water standards.
• Predict the dissolved oxygen sag below an outfall with the Streeter-Phelps model, and explain lake stratification, trophic status and steady-state phosphorus budgets.
• Explain the multi-barrier approach and conventional drinking water treatment, size sedimentation basins and filters, and check disinfection with CT and T₁₀.
• Describe wastewater collection and treatment from screening to biosolids, size an activated sludge tank with the F/M ratio, compute removal efficiencies, and explain secondary treatment standards and NPDES permits.
• Identify the common air pollutants and their sources and effects, convert between ppb and µg/m³, apply the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, and estimate emissions with emission factors and control efficiencies.
• Relate lapse rates to atmospheric stability and plume behavior, and estimate ground-level concentrations with the Gaussian plume model and stability-class dispersion coefficients.
• Apply the waste management hierarchy, describe engineered landfills, estimate leachate and landfill gas generation, and explain how hazardous waste and contaminated sites are regulated.
• Outline the environmental review process under NEPA as it stands after the 2023–2026 changes, identify other approvals a water project needs, and judge the significance of residual effects.