In the past, environmental engineering focused primarily on the design and construction of water and wastewater treatment systems and municipal solid waste management. However, because environmental problems have become more and more complex, the range of environmental engineering activities has increased significantly. To meet new challenges, environmental engineering has become an interdisciplinary profession and now includes areas such as air pollution control, hazardous waste remediation, and life cycle engineering as well as many other new and developing fields. As a result, today's graduating environmental engineers can look forward to dynamic and challenging careers in a field dedicated to the protection of human health and the environment.
