The first environmental engineering sequence
course illuminates the depth and scope of environ-
mental issues facing the world today, and the second
and third sequence courses offer some approaches to
resolving these issues. The second course is entitled
Environmental Engineering Technologies. Its focus
is on technologies that are appropriate for developed
countries. The key technologies examined are those
used to purify drinking water, treat wastewater, and
reduce air pollution. The first major block of the course
describes how a municipal drinking water plant uses
physical and chemical processes to filter, clean and
disinfect drinking water so that it meets U.S. drinking
water standards. Once these processes are understood,
students are introduced to the biological processes
used to treat wastewater and make it clean enough for
discharge back into the environment. Field trips are
taken to the West Point drinking water and wastewa-
ter treatment plants allowing cadets to observe real life
examples of the processes they have studied in their
textbooks. The course also covers common methods
of treating factory air emissions such as cyclones, bag
houses and air strippers. Although these technologies
are introduced in detail, the basic principles of pollu-
tion prevention are constantly emphasized. In other
words, the clean up problem is easier and cheaper to
solve if the pollutant is eliminated or minimized.
These technologies work well for developed coun-
tries which have the infrastructure to support them;
these technologies, however, may not be transport-
able to developing countries which lack electric-
ity, fuel, and an educated workforce. Thus, the third
course in the environmental engineering sequence
tackles environmental issues, primarily clean drink-
ing water, from the standpoint of developing coun-
tries. The emphasis on developing nations is espe-
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