Environmental engineers design the systems that keep water, air and land usable — drinking water and wastewater treatment, stormwater, air-pollution control, landfills and the clean-up of contaminated sites. ⚠ It is the engineering discipline most bound up with regulation: the calculation decides what is possible and the permit decides what is allowed.
What the work actually is
O*NET puts it plainly: research, design, plan or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control and remediation of environmental hazards. Its task statements are more specific — design, or supervise the design of, systems, processes or equipment for control, management or remediation of water, air or soil quality; assess the existing or potential environmental impact of land use projects; advise corporations or government agencies of procedures to follow in cleaning up contaminated sites; collaborate with environmental scientists, planners, hazardous waste technicians, experts in law or business, or other specialists.
⚠ Read that last one again. This is the engineering discipline that spends the most time with people who are not engineers — regulators, lawyers, scientists, planners and the public. A large share of the work is permitting and compliance: the calculation decides what is possible, and the regulation decides what is allowed.
Projected need
About 39,000 environmental engineers are employed nationally, and ⚠ the two federal sources disagree about the trend, which is worth knowing rather than smoothing over. O*NET, on the 2024–34 projections, calls growth “average (3% to 4%)” with 3,000 openings a year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, on the newer 2025–35 projections, says employment is projected to grow 6 percent, faster than the average for all occupations, adding about 2,400 positions. Median pay is $107,110 (May 2025) and the typical entry-level requirement is a bachelor’s degree.
⚠ Both numbers describe a small occupation. Roughly 39,000 environmental engineers nationally compares with about 369,000 civil engineers — so openings are fewer and more geographically concentrated, and the degree is worth choosing for the work rather than for the size of the market.
⚠⚠ In Florida, the regulator is the employer as often as the client
Florida runs environmental permitting through the Department of Environmental Protection and five regional water management districts, which hold their own permitting authority over consumptive use, stormwater and wetlands. Add the counties and cities that operate the water and wastewater utilities, and a large share of the state’s environmental engineers work either for those bodies or for the consultants who file with them.
The problems are specific and they are not going away: drinking water supply in a state that drinks from a limestone aquifer, nutrient loading and the algal blooms that follow it, stormwater in a flat state with intense rainfall, coastal flooding and saltwater intrusion, and the hurricane debris and wastewater failures that follow a storm. ⚠ If you want the work to be near where you live, this is a good discipline to be in in Florida.
⚠⚠⚠ The most fragmented course numbering on this site
Every path here warns that a course number does not identify a course. In environmental engineering the warning is sharper: nine Florida public institutions award this degree, and NOT ONE of the discipline’s own courses is carried by more than four of them.
The introductory course alone runs under three different numbers with no overlap — ENV3001 at FIU, UCF, UF and UWF; ENV4001 at FAMU, Florida State and USF; ENV3001C at FAU and UNF. Solid and hazardous waste splits four against four (ENV4341 against ENV4351), and water and wastewater treatment runs under at least three numbers. ⚠ So do not search for the numbers on this page at your own institution — search for the SUBJECT, and send a syllabus rather than a number when you transfer. Each course below names the alternates we know of.
Necessary skills
- Chemistry, and more of it than any other engineering discipline here. Treatment processes, fate and transport, and remediation are applied chemistry. ⚠ If chemistry is the subject you are hoping to leave behind after the first year, this is the wrong degree.
- Fluid mechanics and hydrology. Water moves through pipes, channels, soil and aquifers, and the design follows it. Groundwater is where Florida’s version of the discipline lives.
- Biology you can use. Secondary wastewater treatment is a managed microbial process. Most programmes require microbiology for exactly this reason.
- Regulation as a working tool — the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, RCRA and CERCLA, and on top of them Florida’s own chapters and the water management districts’ rules. Learning to read a rule is a technical skill in this field.
- Writing. The deliverable is frequently a report or a permit application that a non-engineer must be able to act on. ⚠ Environmental engineers write more than most engineers expect, and it is the skill that separates the ones who get promoted.
Advice
- Check ABET’s ENGINEERING accreditation at amspub.abet.org — and check it against the specific degree, since several Florida programmes award environmental engineering from inside a civil engineering department.
- ⚠ Environmental engineering is not environmental science. They sound alike, they share subject matter, and they lead to different jobs: the science degree is not accredited as engineering and does not lead to the PE licence. Read both before applying, and check which one your offer letter names.
- Take the FE in your final year, and take the FE Environmental paper unless your programme advises otherwise.
- Intern with a water utility, a district or a consultant. In this field the permitting experience is the thing employers cannot teach quickly, and it is what distinguishes two otherwise identical graduates.
- If no environmental degree is near you, read civil engineering honestly. It is offered at nine institutions, it shares the first two years, and a water-resources emphasis leads to much of the same work — with more employers behind it.
A program is a field of study, one level above a degree — each page says which degrees it
covers and which Florida institutions award them. ⚠ The count is institutions that
awarded a credential in the field in 2023;
it is not a promise that a school runs this exact degree, and it counts something different
from the course-based list further down.
Careers filed under the same broad field in the federal classification
(ENGINEERING) — often they share early coursework, and each row says which group it is filed in.
⚠ Worth reading BEFORE you commit: switching between neighbours is cheap early and
expensive late.
Selected, not exhaustive — the courses specific to this path plus the foundations it is built on.
A course number does not identify a course in Florida: always check your own
institution's catalog and take a syllabus to an adviser.
MAC2311
—Calculus I
Guide
Calculus I — the gate on the degree, and the course that decides who finishes.
⚠ ⚠ Transfer is guaranteed on the COMPLETED sequence. Finish calculus at one institution if you can.
MAC2312
—Calculus with Analytic Geometry II
Guide
Calculus II — integration, which is what a mass balance over time actually is.
MAC2313
—Calculus with Analytic Geometry III
Guide
Calculus III — multivariable methods; flow fields, flux and transport are three-dimensional.
MAP2302
—Differential Equations
Guide
Differential Equations — reactor kinetics, contaminant transport and groundwater flow are all differential equations before they are anything else.
PHY2048
—General Physics with Calculus I
Guide
Physics with Calculus I — mechanics, and the foundation of the fluids sequence.
PHY2049
—General Physics with Calculus II
Guide
Physics with Calculus II — required by most programmes; instrumentation and treatment plant electrical systems sit on it.
CHM2045
—General Chemistry I
Guide
General Chemistry I — ⚠ in this discipline chemistry is not a service course. Treatment, fate and transport, and remediation are applied chemistry, and this is where it starts.
⚠ ⚠⚠ FLORIDA NUMBERS GENERAL CHEMISTRY TWO WAYS AND NO INSTITUTION CARRIES BOTH. TWENTY institutions use the CHM2045 family — CF, FAU, Florida Gateway, Florida Poly, Florida SouthWestern, Hillsborough, New College, Pasco-Hernando, State College of Florida, Santa Fe, South Florida State, St Petersburg, UF, UNF, USF and UWF on the bare number, plus FSCJ, Lake-Sumter, Seminole State and UCF on the integrated CHM2045C. NINETEEN use the CHM1045 family — Broward, Florida Keys, Eastern Florida State, FAMU, FGCU, FIU, Florida State, Gulf Coast, Indian River State, Miami Dade, North Florida, Palm Beach State, Pensacola State, St Johns River State and Tallahassee State, plus Daytona State, Northwest Florida State, Polk State and Valencia on CHM1045C. Same course, and the credit articulates either way — but the other number does not exist at your institution. ⚠ The C form packages the laboratory into one 4-credit registration.
CHM2046
—General Chemistry II
Guide
General Chemistry II — ⚠ the one most engineering paths can skip and this one cannot. Equilibrium, acids and bases and electrochemistry are the working vocabulary of water treatment.
⚠ ⚠ The same split as the first semester: CHM2046 at seventeen institutions plus CHM2046C at three, against CHM1046 at fifteen plus CHM1046C at four. Whichever family your institution uses for the first course, it uses for this one.
MCB2010
—Microbiology
Guide
Microbiology — secondary wastewater treatment is a managed microbial process, and most programmes require this or an engineering equivalent before the treatment sequence.
⚠ ⚠ Carried by sixteen public institutions, mostly state colleges — a good course to complete before transferring. Some universities meet the requirement with ENV4031 Applied Environmental Engineering Microbiology instead (FAMU, Florida State); ask which your programme wants.
STA2023
—Elementary Statistics
Guide
Statistics — environmental data is noisy, censored at detection limits and argued over in permits. Sampling design and confidence are everyday tools here.
EGN3613
—Principles of Engineering Economy
Guide
Engineering Economic Analysis — treatment alternatives are compared on life-cycle cost, and the comparison is what a utility board actually votes on.
⚠ ⚠ Carried at DSC, FAMU, FIU, Florida State and UCF; other programmes teach the same material under a departmental number.
Fluid Mechanics — the discipline's central science. Pressure, flow and head loss underlie every pipe, channel, pump and aquifer in the rest of the degree.
⚠ ⚠⚠ FIVE NUMBERS ACROSS FLORIDA FOR THIS SUBJECT, and this is the one seven institutions use (FAMU, FIU, Florida State, UCF, UF, UNF, UWF). FAU and FGCU carry the integrated CWR3201C; UF also carries EGN3353C, USF carries EGN3353, and the mechanical side numbers it EML3701. Register by the number your own programme names.
ENV3001
—Environmental Engineering
Request a guide
Introduction to Environmental Engineering — the survey that frames the whole degree: mass balances, water quality, treatment, air, solid waste and the regulations over all of them.
⚠ ⚠⚠⚠ THREE NUMBERS, NINE INSTITUTIONS, NO OVERLAP. ENV3001 at FIU, UCF, UF and UWF; ENV4001 at FAMU, Florida State and USF; ENV3001C — the integrated lecture-plus-lab form — at FAU and UNF. It is the same introductory course in all three. ⚠ This single row is the clearest example of why you should search the subject and not the number in this discipline.
ENV4514
—Ri: Water and Wastewater Treatment Systems
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Water and Wastewater Treatment Systems — the core professional sequence: coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection, and the biological processes that do the work in secondary treatment.
⚠ ⚠ Three numbers for the treatment core: ENV4514 (FAU, Florida Poly, UWF), ENV4417 Water Quality and Treatment (Florida State, USF) and ENV4500 Environmental Engineering Processes and Operations (FAMU, Florida State). Read the syllabus rather than the title.
ENV4561
—Design of Water Quality Mgmt Facilities
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Design of Water Quality Management Facilities — where treatment stops being analysis and becomes a sized, costed plant. The closest thing this discipline has to a signature design course.
⚠ ⚠ Carried by FAMU, Florida Poly, Florida State and UCF — four of the nine, and the widest reach of any design course in the prefix. Elsewhere the material sits inside the treatment course above or the senior design project.
ENV4341
—Solid Waste Engin & Hazardous Waste Engin
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Solid and Hazardous Waste Engineering — landfill design, leachate, waste characterisation and the RCRA framework that governs all of it.
⚠ ⚠⚠ A FOUR-AGAINST-FOUR SPLIT, and the two halves do not overlap: ENV4341 at FAMU, FAU, Florida Poly and UCF; ENV4351 Solid and Hazardous Waste Management at FIU, UF, USF and UWF. Same subject, two numbers, eight of the nine institutions.
ENV4102
—Air Pollution Control
Guide
Air Pollution — sources, dispersion, control equipment and the permitting regime. ⚠ The half of the discipline students most often overlook, and a steady employer of graduates.
⚠ ⚠ ENV4102 at Florida Poly, USF and UWF; ENV4101 Fundamentals of Air Pollution Engineering at FIU and UF. Several programmes teach it only at graduate level (ENV5105 at FAMU, FIU, Florida State and UF), so check whether your degree includes it at all.
ENV4053
—Ri: Environmental Fate and Transport
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Fate and Transport — where a contaminant goes, how fast, and what it becomes on the way. The analytical core behind every remediation and impact assessment.
⚠ ⚠ Carried by FAU and Florida Poly under this number; at other programmes the material is inside the groundwater or remediation course. If your catalogue has no fate-and-transport course, ask where it is taught — it is not optional knowledge.
ENV4022
—Remediation Engineering
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Remediation Engineering — cleaning up what was already spilled: pump-and-treat, soil vapour extraction, bioremediation and the decision about how clean is clean enough.
⚠ ⚠ FAMU and Florida State under this number; FIU and UWF teach the assessment half as ENV4330 Hazardous Waste Site Assessment.
ENV4330
—Hazardous Waste Site Assessment
Guide
Hazardous Waste Site Assessment — the Phase I and Phase II investigation work that consultants actually hire juniors to do. ⚠ Practical, billable, and the fastest route to responsibility in a consulting firm.
CWR4202
—Hydraulic Engineering I
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Hydraulic Engineering — pipes, pumps, open channels and the sizing of conveyance. The applied half of fluid mechanics and the most widely carried course in this part of the catalogue.
⚠ ⚠ Seven institutions use CWR4202 (FAMU, FAU, Florida Poly, Florida State, UF, USF, UWF); UCF and UNF carry the integrated CWR4202C. No institution carries both.
CWR4120
—Groundwater Hydrology
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Groundwater Hydrology — ⚠ in Florida this is close to a core course rather than an elective. The state drinks from a karst aquifer, and contamination, withdrawal and saltwater intrusion are all groundwater problems.
⚠ ⚠ FAMU, Florida Poly, Florida State and UCF at undergraduate level; FIU, UF and others carry it as the graduate CWR5125 instead — so at some institutions the subject is only reachable in a master's.
CWR4306
—Urban Stormwater Runoff
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Urban Stormwater — runoff, detention and treatment. ⚠ Florida regulates stormwater through the water management districts, so this is permitting work as much as hydraulics, and it is constant employment in a flat, wet, fast-developing state.
⚠ ⚠ CWR4306 at FAMU and UF; CWR4307 Stormwater Modeling and Management at FAU and Florida Poly. Two numbers, four institutions, and elsewhere the material is folded into water resources.
CWR4540
—Water Resource Engineering
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Water Resources Engineering — supply, allocation and the systems view: where the water comes from, who is entitled to it and what happens in a drought.
⚠ ⚠ FAMU, Florida State and USF. Consumptive-use permitting in Florida runs through the water management districts, and this is the course that explains why.
CEG3011C
—Soil Mechanics
Guide
Geotechnical Engineering — soil behaviour, seepage and slope stability. ⚠ Landfills, containment and any remediation that involves digging all rest on it.
⚠ ⚠ The integrated form is carried by FAU, FGCU, Florida Poly and UNF; other programmes split lecture and laboratory (CEG3011 plus CEG3011L) or number it CEG4011. Same subject.
ENV4891
—Environmental Engineering Senior Design Project
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Environmental Engineering Senior Design — the capstone, and the piece of work you will be asked about in interviews. ⚠ Choose a project with a real client if the programme offers one.
⚠ ⚠ FGCU and FIU under this number; every programme has a capstone, under numbers ranging from ENV4892 and ENV4893 to CWR4812 and ENV4009.
39 Florida public institutions teach courses on this path. The count is
how many of the 26 listed courses each one carries — it shows where
the path is best covered. It is not a statement that a school offers this as a
degree; for that, check the institution’s own programme list.
Requirements change. These are the authorities that decide them — check them directly before
committing to a route.