College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Environmental Resources Engineering

Engineering StudentsHumboldt offers the largest undergraduate environmental engineering program in the United States. Environmental Resources Engineering (ERE) graduates are recognized for their ability to solve complex environmental resources management problems. They are employed primarily by engineering consulting firms, state and federal agencies, and utilities, and many are self-employed as private engineering consultants. Approximately a third go on to complete graduate studies, and more than a dozen are teaching at major universities.

Schatz Energy Research Center team members produced the first street-ready fuel cell car in the U.S.The Environmental Resources Engineering major incorporates courses from five areas. Water Quality focuses on water and wastewater treatment, constructed wetland design, and contaminant transport and fate. Water Resources includes the study of water resources planning and management, vadose zone hydrology, and groundwater development and remediation. Environmental Fluid Mechanics includes river restoration and channel design, river hydraulic modeling, sediment transport, and fish passage through culverts. Environmental Geotechnology includes earthquake risk analysis, and the study of slope stability, soil remediation, and landfill design. And Energy Resources focuses on renewable energy, fuel cells and hydrogen technology, and building energy analysis. ERE students have worked on the following projects, for example, in these areas: watershed and eutrophication model for Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon; groundwater circulation and saltwater intrusion in the Elk River, California, aquifer; fish passage through CalTrans culverts; marine slope stability in the Eastern Mediterranean; and renewable hydrogen transportation system for Palm Desert, California.

Engineering students.As an ERE student at Humboldt you will live and study in one of the most beautiful and environmentally interesting areas of California. You will work on individual and group projects, and your classes will incorporate laboratory activities, field work and math modeling techniques. An interdisciplinary approach will prepare you to understand and solve resource management problems in their proper social, economic, ethical and historical contexts. We invite you to join us in continuing this great tradition.

Humboldt State University