Environmental Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

About Us

AlexRenew is one of the most advanced wastewater utilities in the United States, serving over 300,000 customers in Alexandria, VA, and parts of Fairfax County. Each year, our facility processes and treats approximately 13 billion gallons of wastewater received from area homes, schools, and businesses to protect public health and the environment. If you are interested in working for a leader in the wastewater industry, we invite qualified candidates to apply for our Environmental Specialist position.

What we do and how we do it is driven by our five Goals:

• Operational Excellence: Taking proactive steps to meet current and future challenges.
• Thriving Workforce: Investing in our staff and fostering a culture of belonging.
• Strategic Partnerships: Promoting watershed-level thinking.
• Environmental Sustainability: Being good stewards of our resources to minimize our impact.
• Commitment to the Community: Strengthening connections with the public and providing affordable service.

Summary:

The Environmental Specialist plays a critical role in improving water quality through the day-to-day management of AlexRenew’s industrial pretreatment, stormwater, and emerging contaminants programs. Reporting to the Water Quality Manager, this essential position requires sound independent judgment, excellent communication skills, expertise in local, state and federal water quality and biosolids regulations, and a commitment to safety.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

Pretreatment Program Management

• Manage the Industrial Pretreatment Program in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local requirements, including 40 CFR Part 403, the VPDES permit, and local Sewer Use Ordinance.
• Draft and implement standard operating procedures (SOPs) for inspections, sampling, permitting, and enforcement industrial wastewater discharge permits, control mechanisms, special conditions, and compliance schedules.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with industrial users, conduct surveys, maintain accurate inventories and regulatory determinations.
• Conduct inspections and facility investigations to characterize operations, waste streams, pollutant sources, and pretreatment system performance and maintain accurate user inventories.
• Review all required submittals for completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and regulatory adequacy.
• Support development and periodic review of local limits to protect treatment processes, biosolids quality, worker safety, and receiving waters.
• Implement compliance activities related to dental amalgam, slug discharge control, spill prevention, and other best management practice requirements, as applicable.
• Prepare and submit required regulatory reports, annual pretreatment program documentation, and other compliance deliverables within established deadlines.
• Maintain auditable program records, inspection files, enforcement documentation, and monitoring data in accordance with retention requirements and internal policy.
• Reviews proposed industrial developments, process changes, and new discharge requests to determine pretreatment applicability, permitting needs, and potential impacts to the WRRF and collection system.
• Monitors regulatory changes, guidance, and enforcement trends and advises management on impacts, implementation strategies, and program updates needed to maintain compliance.
• Maintains effective working relationships with industrial users, operations, laboratory, engineering, regulatory agencies and other stakeholders to support program effectiveness.

Stormwater Program Management

• Manage the Industrial Stormwater Program in compliance with applicable federal, state, local requirements and best management practices, internal procedures, and program goals.
• Update and implement Stormwater Program SOPs
• Conduct quarterly stormwater sampling, inspections, monitoring, and field assessments using approved procedures and safety practices.
• Support pollution prevention, illicit discharge identification, spill response, and corrective action activities to protect the collection system, WRRF, and receiving waters.
• Maintain organized program records, monitoring data, inspection files, equipment documentation, and compliance materials.

Emerging Contaminants Program Management

• Conducts quarterly monitoring on priority pollutants and PFAS, analyzes trends and makes recommendations.
• Manages PFAS sampling program, coordinates with laboratories and consultants to ensure timely, accurate results.
• Analyzes PFAS data for compliance with biosolids requirements, reports data to Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
• Reviews quarterly PFAS monitoring data received from the SIU Program to ensure completeness, accuracy, and compliance with applicable monitoring and reporting requirements for submittal to Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
• Evaluates analytical data, sampling methods, preservation, holding times, chain-of-custody, and QA/QC documentation to ensure data defensibility and regulatory usability.
• Ensures proper maintenance, inspection, and calibration of field instruments, sampling equipment, and related documentation used for compliance monitoring activities.
• Coordinates with laboratories, contractors, and consultants to ensure proper analytical services, defensible documentation, and conformance with contract and regulatory requirements
• Monitors science and regulations on emerging contaminants, recommends research and program changes needed to inform internal strategies for compliance.
• Participates in state and national workgroups on emerging contaminants, advises.
• Track regulatory changes, scientific guidance, analytical methods, and enforcement trends related to emerging contaminants and advise management on program impacts.

• Supports AlexRenew’s research and sampling program by overseeing consultant performance of any environmental sample collection and analysis activities.
• Conduct PFAS and other emerging contaminant monitoring, source identification, industrial user surveys, and regulatory readiness activities consistent with applicable state requirements.
• Use databases, spreadsheets, GIS, survey results, and sampling data to track potential sources, evaluate trends, support investigations, and prepare reports.
• As appropriate and as needed, participates in AlexRenew’s safety program by attending safety committee meetings, serving as liaison on safety committee, and completing additional safety training when available.
• Other duties as assigned.

Key Competencies, Individual Contributor:

• Accountability
• Quality of Work
• Initiative
• Safety Awareness
• Teamwork

Qualification Requirements:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, Natural Science, Civil, Mechanical, Sanitary, or Environmental Engineering, or a closely related field required; advanced degree preferred. Equivalent combinations of education and experience may be considered.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in wastewater treatment, industrial pretreatment, environmental compliance, wastewater monitoring, laboratory services, stormwater management, pollution prevention/minimization, sanitary engineering, or related environmental regulatory programs.
• Strong knowledge of wastewater treatment, industrial pretreatment programs, stormwater management, pollution prevention and pollution minimization practices, laboratory procedures, quality assurance/quality control, and applicable federal, state, and local environmental regulations, including the Clean Water Act, NPDES permitting requirements, and EPA Pretreatment Standards.
• Experience with industrial permitting, inspections, compliance monitoring, enforcement, regulatory reporting, wastewater sampling, PFAS monitoring and source identification, pollution minimization initiatives, local limits, Significant Industrial User (SIU) oversight, industrial user surveys, dental amalgam compliance, and emerging contaminant.
• Working knowledge of PFAS regulations, industrial source reduction strategies, local limits, industrial user characterization, stormwater monitoring, and best management practices to support pollution prevention and minimization objectives.
• Ability to interpret environmental regulations, engineering documents, technical reports, laboratory analytical data, and sampling results, prepare a clear report, maintain records, communicate findings, and recommend corrective actions.
• Experience with GIS, Microsoft Office, environmental compliance databases, and data management systems, strong analytical skills for trend, regulatory evaluation, PFAS data assessment, and environmental performance monitoring.
• Strong project management, organizational, communication, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills, able to prioritize multiple projects, and collaborate across cross-functional teams, build positive stakeholder relationships, and support compliance, pollution minimization, and continuous environmental improvement initiatives.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. A detailed Physical Demands Analysis is available in Human Resources and a copy will be provided to all incumbents in this position. While performing the duties of this job, the employee strength demands are typical of office work, and include lifting up to 10 pounds, and minimal pushing or pulling.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Environmental conditions necessitate following strict safety guidelines and use of Personal Protective Equipment. While performing the duties of this job, the work is performed primarily indoors, primarily in a climate controlled office environment, however outdoor trips are necessary to conduct field inspections.

Disclaimer:

The above information on this job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.