>> Charlotte Sharon: My name is Charlotte Sharon, and I'm an Environmental Scientist
at a small environmental consulting firm.
So, the majority of what I do is involving the water quality monitoring that we do
for developers, primarily in Montgomery County, so they have certain requirements they have
to follow during construction and after construction.
My day is pretty much different every day I come to work, which I really enjoy that.
[Background Noise]This is the flow meter this is flow rod.
When we get down there, I will hook them up, and the flow rod goes into the stream,
and the flow meter gives you the velocity of the water as it's coming through.
Prior to construction on these sites, we install ground water wells,
and we have to go out check the level every month.
We have two [inaudible] flow readings which in certain streams on the site which sort
of helps us gauge how much water is coming through the streams which can increase
which can increase when there is an increase in impervious surface and that sort of thing.
We do storm sampling, so during rain events, we will gather water samples at various BMPs
which are best management practices, and during construction those are like sediment traps.
You know, as they are grading the land, there's a lot of dirt being moved around basically,
and during rain events, that can be washed into waterways, so they put these sediment basins
on there that are supposed to capture the majority of the run off and sediment
and let the sediment sort of filter out before the water is discharge into the stream.
So, we have to capture the amount of water coming in and what's going out,
and then we sample that for sediment, and in post construction, we also sample for pollutants
and nutrients, so heavy metals and things like that.
[Background Noise] So, this is a ground water well
and basically it measures the level of a the ground water.
We are right by a stream, so theoretically the ground water here should be higher
than at other places.
This is a well reader, so basically, it makes [beep] that noise when it hits water.
So, you just drop it down in the well.
When it beeps, we measure where the well casing is on I really enjoy being outside,
and I like that when I come to work I could be doing any number of different things
on any given day, and it's not the same thing over and over again.
This is the first job that I have ever had that is not either very monotonous or is not
in the office every day so, that's definitely my favorite thing.
[ Beep ]
So, our well reading today is at 5.7.
Top of the well to water is 5.7 feet.
Back in the office, we have an Excel Spreadsheet that we created that tells us the actual height
of the ground at this point, so we can tell where the water is
in relation to the height of the ground.
I think for me, I have a Masters in Marine and Estuarine Environmental Science.
The thesis work that I did for that was sort of more economics based
because that's what my undergrad was in.
So coming into this job, I actually didn't have a lot of experience with permit applications
and regulatory end of things, and it's not exactly a challenge,
but it's certainly a learning experience.
Like, I wasn't familiar with doing all of the things that I am now responsible for doing
when I first took this job, so there was a learning curve, but I really, really enjoy it,
and I am learning a lot of useful information so.
I think if you're dead set on getting into the environmental field,
I think doing a science undergrad degree in either environmental science, or biology,
or chemistry, or something like that would certainly help.
The other big thing that this job I think requires or is useful to have is the knowledge
of regulation, environmental regulation in the government and [pause] So,
I went to St. Mary's College of Maryland in St. Mary's City, southern Maryland,
and I actually majored in English and economics so I did not have any science background.
I really enjoyed environmental literature, which I sort of did an environmental studies focus
or concentration is what they called it at St. Mary's
but did not require any hard science courses, so I graduated and I travelled, you know,
I just sort of took a mediocre job as a government contractor, saved up some money
and did some traveling and decided I really wanted to go
into the environmental science field.
So, I had to take a lot of post baccalaureate classes basically so, like,
undergrad courses that were requirements for the masters program I wanted to do.
So, I did that part time and worked for, like, two years to get the requirements I need
to do the masters programs, and then that was another two years.
[pause] I think that most people that come into this field do it
because they have a passion for that.
I know that is certainly where I came from.
You know, I didn't have the degree that I needed to do it.
I didn't have the requirements I needed to do the masters.
I had a lot of work ahead of me when I started on this path,
but I knew it was something I really, really wanted to do, so I would encourage anybody
who feels strongly about the environment,
who is passionate about making a difference to not let anything stop you.