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I graduated from the Biosystems Engineering program (Natural Resources
emphasis), I was seeking employment as an environmental engineer.
I soon received an opportunity to do environmental remediation work
for Omega Environmental Services in Texas. This was exactly the
kind of job I wanted and began work in San Antonio.
My job is
to design systems for the clean up of sites polluted or contaminated
by oil and other petroleum products. These are called Phase-Separated
Hydrocarbons (PSH) because they may exist in both vapor and liquid
states. Usually, a leaking underground storage tank causes the
contaminated site. If the leakage is severe (long term and/or
involving large quantities of PSH), the soil near the tank may
be saturated and PSH may be floating on top of the groundwater
table.
Remediation
involves removing the source of leakage, installing a well or
series of wells, pumping water from the well for treatment, and
removing PSH vapor from the soil by vacuum extraction. Liquid
PSH is stored and removed from the site while vapors are removed
and burned on-site.
My job involves
designing the system of pumps, blowers, separators, air strippers,
thermal oxidizers and tanks for individual sites. Each site varies
relative to the required hardware and implementation. I enjoy
seeing my system take form and operate on-site. I also have the
satisfaction that I am contributing to environmental clean-up
and improved environmental quality.
The diagrams
and photos below demonstrate the typical on-site system and process
used.
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