Environmental Scientist

~ The mission of The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is to provide service to the people of Louisiana through comprehensive environmental protection in order to promote and protect health, safety and welfare while considering sound policies regarding employment and economic development. ~

The Department will continue to respond as the public becomes more aware of environmental areas such as recycling and litter control, air quality and toxics, sewage and industrial wastewater, wetlands and general hydrogeologic concerns.

The Department has been fortunate to have many professional employees whose concern with Louisiana's environmental quality has made them experts throughout the United States, sought after as participants in conferences, seminars and symposia. The Department's greatest resource is its employees, and the expertise and dedication they bring to the job in protecting Louisiana's environment.  

Position Overview

The Environmental Scientist's function is to regulate environmental effects of industrial, commercial, governmental and construction activities through performance of permitting, certification, investigation, inspection, enforcement, emergency response, data collection and assessment, quality assurance, facility classification, laboratory analysis, and/or environmental assessment tasks.

Responsibilities

• Assists in review of permit applications for minor sources of pollution or minor modifications to major sources of pollution.
• May draft permits under close supervision.
• Assists in routine inspection and complaint investigations.
• Participates in emergency response activities.
• Participates and/or assists in enforcement actions.
• Assists in the operations of monitoring equipment and collection of monitoring data.
• Perform routine "wet-chemistry" analyses of water and wastewater samples for various chemical and physical parameters using titrimetric, gravimetric, and volumetric procedures.
• Performs basic potentiometric analyses of water and wastewater samples.
• Develops skills and assists in the analyses of various environmental samples (air water, wastewater, soils, sediments and aquatic organisms) using various instrumental procedures including atomic absorption spectrophotometry, automated colorimetry, ion chromatography, gas chromatography infrared spectrometry, mass spectroscopy, polarized light microscopy, or scanning electron microscopy.
• Develops skills and assists in the required distillation/extraction of environmental samples prior to instrumental analysis, or the preparation and calibration of sampling devises used to collect ambient air samples.
• Develops skills and assists in the preparation of necessary standard solutions and reagents required for laboratory operations.
• Assist in the acquisition, formatting, reporting, and quality control of analytical data.
• Assist in the calibration and maintenance of laboratory equipment.

Qualifications

• A baccalaureate degree with a major in one of the following scientific fields: animal science, biological sciences, chemistry, geosciences, atmospheric sciences, soil sciences, physical geography, physics, health sciences, toxicology, environmental sciences, wildlife and fisheries sciences, engineering, nuclear science, agronomy, forestry, health physics, medical physics, or statistics and quantitative methods.
• A master's degree or Ph.D. in any of the qualifying fields will substitute for the baccalaureate degree.
• Any college hours or degree must be from a school accredited by one of the following regional accrediting bodies: the Middle States Commission on Higher Education; the New England Association of Schools and Colleges; the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools; the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities; the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
• The transcript must state that the applicant's major is in one of the specified fields. Baccalaureate degrees with majors in a field not listed above which included a heavy concentration in science courses will not be considered qualifying.
• Some specific scientific fields that are not qualifying are agriculture, architecture, computer science, food science, horticulture, mathematics, and science education. 

Compensation: $14.36 - $28.60 hourly; $2,489.00 - $4,957.00 monthly.  

~ Equal Opportunity Employer ~