EHST 1301: Introduction to
Environmental Technology
Introduction
Introduction
http://www.cccprofessorlou.com/
What is Environmental Technology?
Manage, work with, and
control physical hazards,
hazardous materials and
pollutants
• Reduce and manage
human health and
ecological health risks
• Comply with current
environmental law
• Pollution Prevention
strategies
Archimedes' screw, also called the
Archimedean screw
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What is Environmental Technology?
The civil and environmental engineer’s definition:
Application of engineering principles to planning, design,
construction, and operation of
• drinking water treatment and distribution
• stormwater management, sewage disposal and
water pollution control
• solid and hazardous waste management
• air and noise pollution control
• general community sanitation
• Others?
Question: Under what conditions are these technologies unnecessary?
What would life be like?
What is Environmental
Science?
• Interdisciplinary* academic field that studies
environmental problems and human impacts on the
environment.
– quantitative
– applied and theoretical
– “…an environmental scientist would seek to understand climate
change by quantifying its effects with models and evaluating
means of mitigation.”
(*ecology, geology, meteorology, biology, chemistry,
engineering, and physics)
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
What is Environmental Technology?
Refers to the application
of environmental
sciences in the
development of new
technologies which aim
to conserve, monitor or
reduce the harm humans
regularly cause the
environment while
consuming its resources.
(source: /www.envirotech-online.com)
Eddy Current Separator
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Motivations For Development Of
Environmental Technology
• Protect human health
• Protect property
• Keep up with advancing
industrial technology
• Protect ecological health,
ecosystem services, and
species diversity Emergency Response
• Compliance-forcing
regulations and
enforcement
Our Focus
• Properties and effects of substances
• Behavior of substances in the environment
• Complexity of natural systems including the human
organism
• Anthropogenic contaminants and source control
technologies
• Pollution prevention
• Identifying opportunities for careers
Concerns and Causes
Do Humans Affect the
Environment?
3
Ancient Times and the Middle
Ages
• Relationship between density of
human/animal population and prevalence
of infectious disease – migration, sanitation
– Examples of Rome, London, native villages
• Relationship between certain naturally-
occurring substances (toxins) and
poisoning
• The “alchemists” – toxicants, toxicity, and
occupational health
David Teniers ca. 1600s
The Industrial Revolution
Late 1700s to mid 1800s
• Natural areas were being
quickly replaced
– Consequences of loss of use,
loss of services, species,
aesthetics, loss of untouched
areas
• Beginnings of the American
conservation movement
– Natural resources are not
limitless
• Human use can leave an
area uninhabitable, damage
waterbodies
• Occupational illnesses and
injuries - Mad Hatter Syndrome
European Industrial
Revolution
1750-1850
Improved living
standards via
readily-available,
inexpensive goods
Transition from
renewable energy to
fossil fuel
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Modern Industrial Age
beginning ~1900 – significant gains after 1945
• Industrial output
• Synthetics
• Quantities and concentration – chemicals
and industrial complexes
• Growth without understanding of long-term
consequences
– ET not keeping up
• Population growth and density – people
continue to be drawn to the cities
Modern Industrial Age
• 1940s on…
• Atomic age
• Convenience and consumerism
• Industrialized agriculture and its
dependence on petroleum
The 70s to present
• Brought on by the increased awareness of
the 50s and 60s
– Boomerang paradigm
– Command and control: Early environmental
movement turns to sustained action as federal
government takes control over protection of
human health, environment, and workplace
– Lessons learned: Pollution prevention and
Sustainability
• Web of protection
• Advancements in environmental technology
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Where Do Released
Substances/Pollutants Go?
Compartments in the Environment
Biological Compartments
• “a single region of the body with a
uniform xenobiotic concentration” (Casarett &
Doull’s Toxicology, 2001)
• Compartments consist of three individual
well-mixed subcompartments
1. Vascular space
2. Interstitial space
3. Intracellular space
Environmental Compartments
• Extend definition of biological
compartments to sectors of the
environment which can accept
contaminants
• Compartments know no political
boundaries
– Transboundary pollution is an international
issue that is solved through international
cooperation and national controls
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Air
• Stratosphere (troposphere to 160 km [99 miles])
– higher that troposphere
– location of protective ozone layer
• Troposphere (surface to 23-60 km [14-37 mi])
– nearest to Earth's surface
– weather occurs here
– Ozone here is considered a pollutant
– Subcompartments:
• Ambient air – breathable outdoor air
• Indoor air – breathable indoor air
• Mesosphere (to 285 km [160 mi]), thermosphere
Water
Surface water
• creeks, streams, rivers
• impoundments
• ponds, lakes, oceans
Water
• Groundwater
– underground but may interact with surface
water
• Drinking water
– may be underground or surface water source
• Process water
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Land
• Soils - on land
• Underwater
Sediments
– below surface
waters
– these have
characteristics
of soils but
are very
dependent on
waters
