Hot Careers

Hot Careers in Aviation Environmental Science

Students Get the Bug for a Greener Aviation

By Robert Ross

Feeding bugs wasn’t quite how Amber Tyson expected to be easing industry’s impact on the environment after she graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

But there she was, every month, at a fuel farm owned by Kinder Morgan in Las Vegas, Nev., injecting water and hydrogen peroxide into a well near 20 above-ground tanks that each held 50,000 gallons of natural gas. The mixture was an oxygen lifeline to the aerobic organisms that were eating soil contaminated 15 years ago when one of the tanks sprung a leak. The bugs neutralize the benzene, toluene, methyl tert-butyl ether, and other nasty chemical additives or byproducts of gas.

At the time, two years ago, Tyson was senior staff scientist at TRC, an environmental consulting agency in Las Vegas. In addition to doing groundwater remediation at the fuel farm, she helped clean up jet fuel at Nellis Air Force Base, closed a well at McCarran International Airport, and helped MGM and Harrah’s casinos reduce the air pollution caused by their generators and cooling towers.

Consulting Makes the Grade

Tyson’s diverse career, in the four short years since she graduated, is an example of what Embry-Riddle’s Aviation Environmental Science degree makes possible.

The program, offered at the Prescott, Ariz., campus, prepares students to tackle the ecological and safety issues found in aviation, aerospace, and other industries. Graduates have their choice of environmental jobs with government agencies, airports, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Environmental Protection Agency, corporations, and consulting firms.

The program has two areas of concentration. In the Applied Environmental Science track, students learn to help aviation companies comply with environmental laws. An Environmental Management option covers environmental law, international business, marketing, and organizational management.

One of the program’s most popular courses is Environmental Consulting, taught by Archie Dickey, who created the degree program in 2000 and today chairs it.

Each year, students in his class become consultants and take on a real-life issue, such as a new road being considered by Yavapai County, where the campus is located. They break into teams to assess how the road might affect air and water quality, as well as human life, and then they produce an environmental impact statement.

“We drove along the road to see what the visual changes would be if a new road came through,” said student Carter King, who took the course this spring term. “Dr. Dickey pointed out everything we need to take account of, including the legal aspects.”

“The county planner keeps coming back with new projects for the course, because the students have done such a good job in previous semesters,” Dickey said.

Tyson remembers the course as one of the best she had at Embry-Riddle. She and her classmates completed a consulting project for Out of Africa, a wildlife park in Camp Verde, Ariz.

Hands-on Experience Leads to Jobs

“It helped me get my job at TRC, because I had been the project manager,” she said. “I had actually done a consulting project.”

Students get more hands-on experience during a four-day camping trip in the desert to study Arizona’s biology, geology, and geography. “The idea is to get them out into nature and learn plants and animals,” Dickey said. “Some of them have never been outdoors before.”

Students also help maintain the Wildlife Strike Database and Web site created by Dickey several years ago. The site collects and shares data about incursions between aircraft and wildlife, usually birds, at airports around the country and helps airport officials learn how to reduce the hazard.

Although Embry-Riddle’s environmental degree can be applied in any industry, there’s plenty of action in aviation alone. Airports are miniature cities, with concerns about air pollution, noise, energy use, and traffic congestion. The program deals with what goes on at an airport, like de-icing planes and keeping deer off the runway.

“If you fly into a gull and take it into the engine, you’ve got engine failure,” Dickey said. “Even one bird hitting a plane means the plane has to be taken out of service and examined. That costs money.”

It can also cost companies up to $30,000 per day in fines when they have equipment that violates clean air, water, and soil standards. The Embry-Riddle program covers environmental regulations and teaches students how to help companies comply with local and federal regulations.

“Some companies are polluting without knowing it,” said Tyson, who now works in the Yavapai County land planning office. “There’s a need for people who know how to fix these problems. I’m helping them do the right thing. That way, it’s good for everybody.”

For more about the degree program: http://www.erau.edu/pr/degrees/b-aes.html.