http://www.JobSpectrum.org/job_geochem.html Geochemistry - Career Brief |
When minerals once buried in the mountains are exposed to oxygen and water, they begin to break down more rapidly, making the metals more readily available to become part of the water system in the environment. Mining activities exacerbate this process. Mining activities have also often resulted in abandoned mine waste piles, and metals in these piles are often attached to sulfide-a key player in creating acid mine drainage. After a rain event or snow melt, acidic metal-rich waters drain off of these waste piles. Since mountains are often the headwaters of a lot of river systems, these contaminated streams can impact aquatic, animal, and human life because the water is often diverted for irrigation purposes and well water for some rural areas. As a result, the effect of acid mine drainage on the environment has raised great concern. Montour collects and analyzes samples from abandoned mine land piles and performs leach studies to determine the geology or the makeup of the rock and how the elements in the rock affect the water that comes into contact with them. She also tests the waters that have come into contact with the minerals in these waste piles to determine their acidity and metal content. "We try to correlate what the rocks are made of and how that affect water coming into contact with the rocks," says Montour. "There are thousands of abandoned mine lands in the United States. We try to help land management agencies predict the potential environmental impact of the abandoned mine sites to aid them in prioritizing their cleanup efforts."
Geochemists stress the importance of a firm grounding in a basic chemical discipline. Analytical chemistry is vital for this kind of work. While a degree in pure chemistry may have been a viable route into the field 10 or 20 years ago, an advanced degree in geochemistry is now more desirable. Ph.D.s may not be necessary for those going into the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Unless you are working for a consulting firm that specializes in geochemical problems, it may not be much of an advantage," Plumlee says.
Because geochemists spend a significant amount of time in the field, this is also a career for people who enjoy the outdoors, camping, hiking, and climbing. Montour's job also involves a lot of outdoor work, collecting samples in the field and often analyzing them in the field. "I think that one of the best parts of the job is being able to work outside. I love being in the outdoors. Even though some of these abandoned mine land sites may not pleasant to the eye, they're often in beautiful surroundings, and it's great to be able to spend a large portion of your time in the outdoors. I consider it to be one of the best perks of the job."
Rooney has a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry and her doctoral research was focused on plant physiology, particularly on stable carbon isotopes. "This background has been very useful to my career, " she says, "because plants contribute to the organic matter that becomes oil." With this specialized knowledge, she is a valuable part of the interdisciplinary teams of scientists who provide the technical expertise in oil exploration. "I like the work I do and especially the people I work with," says Rooney. "When I was in graduate school, there were people who told me not to go into industry. There is the perception that you are not allowed to think in industry. But this is not true. I have worked on very challenging projects and with people who have been willing to teach me a great deal."
At Summitville, the USGS plays the role of an unbiased researcher and information provider. Plumlee helps coordinate a team of geologists, geochemists, soil scientists, and botanists who are investigating what happens to contamination from Summitville once it gets off the site. "We take rock samples and collect and analyze water samples from a geologic point of view. We also analyze soil, looking at plants and evaluating the metal uptake from irrigation water," says Plumlee. With this information, his team can try to predict long-term environmental impact and help mitigate problems or develop a remediation plan for cleaning up contamination. "We have one lab operating at a disposal site in the Midwest whose purpose is to help the engineers working on the site to determine if the soil can be removed from the site and landfilled, or is hazardous and must be incinerated," he explains. This field lab has saved ENSR's client money in analytical costs and transport and disposal costs by being able to quickly identify the safest fate for the materials on site. "Having analytical capabilities on site is important because, often, materials change when they are transported, such as metals which are subject to oxidation. If you analyze these off site, you get different information than if you analyzed them directly on site." Frisbie has a Ph.D. in chemistry and most of his work falls under the category of analytical chemistry. Bachelor's degree holders who do routine analysis at off-site labs often repeatedly test for the same compound, such as lead or PCBs, he says. "The work I do is a nice way to do analytical chemistry without being subject to the tedium of being an analytical chemist in a lab." Frisbie advises, "It's important when you are in graduate school
to think beyond the defense of your dissertation. I chose benzene as the
subject of my dissertation because it is the fourth most commonly detected
substance at Superfund sites. This meant my topic had broad application
in industry. Education is learning to think, but it is good to learn to
think about something you'd like to do as a career," says Frisbie.
In some cases, Viets has a specific application. "By characterizing the fluids in large blocks of rock, we can often recognize areas for mineral exploration or areas that are suitable for waste storage," he says. Viets studies the chemical and physical characteristics of these fluids with a number of analytical tools such as ion chromatography and mass spectrometry. "It's more than curiosity-driven science," he says. "We are looking for answers to societal questions such as environmental and resource issues that we couldn't ask fifteen years ago. We can ask them now because of the newly-developed instrumental resources and new technical resources at our disposal. "This kind of research is on the wane at government agencies such as the USGS because of shrinking budgets," says Viets. "There's more of a focus on applied work such as environmental issues. This means we are less involved in other areas where the USGS has traditionally been strong, such as exploration technology and mineral resource studies."
Laidlaw is one of North America's largest haulers and handlers of hazardous waste. Bill Hallam, a trained geochemist, spent many years in the field identifying waste compounds and packaging them for disposal. He now manages the company's transfer, storage, and disposal facility at La Porte, Texas. "I'm responsible for the entire operation of this facility," he says, "for the generation of revenue, cost controls, maintenance of hazardous waste, and making sure the facility meets all environmental regulations." Hallam likes being on the management side of business, particularly because it involves interaction with a broad range of people. Though officially employed as a geochemist, Hallam says his chemistry training is the skill he draws on most often for his work in the field. "Environmental management is definitely an area for people who like working outside," asserts Hallam. "You have to be ready to put on rubber boots to slosh around to find out what's going on." Environmental work for the geochemist also means being willing to put in long hours. "This is absolutely not a nine-to-five job," he says. "You usually put in 50 hours a week and on weekends you are often on call in case there's an emergency cleanup or a spill."
Steve Machemer is a geochemist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Part of his job is to collect and analyze samples of enforcement-related actions. For example, EPA may be trying to determine who is at fault for the contamination of water or soil. "A lot of these cases don't end up in court," says Machemer. "But the data we gather could be used if there is any suspicion of criminal negligence." Samples of material that has potentially caused harm are taken from
storage drums or waste pits. As a geochemist, Machemer's work focuses
on the soil, ground, or surface water that may have become contaminated
through spillage or leaching. One aspect of his work Machemer particularly enjoys is the opportunity for developing new analytical techniques in the field. "There's a lot of opportunity to be innovative and a huge variety of projects. Sometimes you develop a new technique for each project."
McGuire's job is solving chemical problems for the company's mining sites. One example of this is in gold mining where certain ores are refractory in nature and do not lend themselves to conventional treatment. These ores, often sulfide ores or carbonaceous ores, he says, need special treatment-such as roasting, auto claving or bioleaching-so that gold can be extracted from them. McGuire identifies these ores and makes recommendations regarding their handling. "Scientists in the mining industry tend to wear many hats," he adds. "You're not tied down to the bench. You can be involved in environmental issues, hygiene issues, and exploration issues. And because U.S. companies are now going far afield with projects all over the world, there is a fair amount of opportunity for travel." The mining industry is in need of young, well-trained metallurgists, he says. For this area it is important to have a strong background in inorganic chemistry, process metallurgy, and a thorough understanding of unit processes.
Oliver Zafiriou, senior scientist in the department of marine chemistry and geochemistry at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, describes himself as having entered oceanography sideways. "Today, almost everyone working in this area comes from geochemistry or marine chemistry," he says. But in the late 1960s, Zafiriou found that joining Woods Hole with a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry was a good way to get out of hard core chemistry, but still apply his post doctoral work in photochemistry. Zafiriou still studies photochemical processes. Recently, he has been working on a project to determine how light breaks down colored, dissolved, organic matter, or CDOM, a geologic material that plays an important role in the ocean. "One of our goals in this project is to better understand the marine production of carbon dioxide and how CDOM breaks down and forms CO2." The work he does will provide one part of the mass of data that will help scientists evaluate the role of CO2 in global change. Zafiriou says he uses lab studies of CDOM samples and time-series studies to come up with specific information from which we can build a bridge back to the global ocean. Zafiriou adds that the ocean is a particularly challenging lab for geochemical research. "It's always changing. You can't expect to go back and get the same answer every time." While this appeals to a spirit of adventure common among geochemists, Zafiriou cautions it's not all fun and games. "It's easy for students to fall in love with this area," he says. "The fun end is more visible in this kind of chemistry, but there's also a lot of work. A professor of Woods Hole in the 1970s used to say there was one word for success in oceanography-doggedness.
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