<p>What does environmental engineering actually constitute? I know that the a lot of it is about stuff like waste water management and the water purification, but I'd like to know a bit more about the other parts of the field. </p>
<p>Also, does it make much of a difference to major in environmental engineering specifically in college, as opposed to some other major like civil engineering or environmental science?</p>
<p>Environmental engineering involves waste water management, water purification and filtration, water treatment plant design, landfill design, air purification, design of certain facets of factories to promote environmental health, hydrology, transport phenomena, river design and floodplain management, drainage, overland flow, soil purification techniques, hazardous waste management.... stuff like that, along those lines. Lots of air chemistry and water chemistry. Orgo. Bio. Stuff like that. It encompasses a very broad field, and it sort of goes hand-in-hand with civil engineering, so a lot of places lump the two fields into one department.</p>
<p>That being said... There's a big difference between majoring in civil engineering and environmental engineering. Civs take a lot of environmental engineering courses, but they don't take a lot of the really heavy bio and chem courses. They instead take a TON of design courses and they deal with transportation and structural stuff, which environmental engineers don't cover.</p>
<p>Environmental science is a lot less practical and more theoretical. You'll learn more geology and botany and plant biology and stuff like that. You'll deal a lot less in water treatment plant design and a lot more in hippie-tree-hugger sorts of things (not that that's a bad thing...)</p>