Environmental Scientist - Veronika

• Name: Dr. Veronika Pesinova, P.E.
• Occupation: Senior Environmental Scientist
• Education: Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA
• Location: California
• Company: Creelman & Associates, Inc. - http://www.lynncreelman.com/

Note: This was our first interview for our brand new environmental career profile section and our very own Brian Pearl was rather inept in his interviewing process. Luckily Veronika was more than up for the task and ended up leading Brian to some interesting topics about being an Environmental Scientist and some insights she's gained from her extensive experience. There was a little interference on the recording device and those parts are marked in [brackets].

Brian: What are some of your most recent projects?

Veronika: I recently worked on a couple of projects at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). One involved the rebuilding of one of their runways at the airport, so there were all the environmental impacts from the construction. And, the second thing was the actual impacts of the construction equipment, emissions and gas on the surrounding residents. So helping them to do the monitoring they have to do and to comply with all the rules and to not exceed the noise and emissions limits.

They had all kinds of mitigation measures on how to minimize the impacts on the surrounding community, and so we were monitoring that and collecting information and then wrote up a report about how all these mitigation measures they did actually worked and minimized the environmental impact.

Brian: I've heard that the environmental regulations in CA are a lot more stringent than the rest of the country.

Veronika: Yeah, absolutely and also in addition to the .... you have three layers: federal, which are usually the most lenient and then you have the state of California which are stricter then the federal. California is known for being at the head of the back, haha, but that is changing now I think because we don't have any money! And in southern California it is even more [strict] because of the smog. So for emissions we have these local air quality magistrates? that have even more stringent regulations.

Another [third tier example?] is the community agreement around LAX and they [the community?] are like hawks. Whatever there is they are right there. So in addition to all these federal and state regulations, you have to deal with the community agreements, which have additional requirements.

Brian: Seems like Environmental Consulting is a really complicated Task to Undertake

Veronika: Yeah, well again, in general nothing is simple and environmental issues are always very political, very controversial and people get very emotional. So as an environmental scientist, one of my biggest discoveries when I started working because at school you just study sciences and all that, but nobody warned to the fact that it's so political and controversial. So often I feel like it's not so much about the science and the technical issues as much as political issues seems to be much more of a focus.

Brian: So What Was your Education Background Before Becoming an Environmental Scientist

Veronika: Well my undergraduate degree was a Bachelor of Sciences in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA.

Brian: So you were just kinda shocked by how political it was and this is what you need to do when this happens and now it's more about how to network with people and get things done a little bit differently.

Veronika: Yeah, it's definitely always about you know, people involved in relationships, I mean, it's um there's just so many different groups involved and they all have their own interests and before I started doing this I was actually with the government both the state of CA and the EPA. Yeah I mean, you should go to sometime to one of those public meetings where theres and environmental issue like building a road or some new development, and you'll see all the people that will come out and all their issues and all their complaints and it's opponents, proponents and there's arguing and then you have the board from the state or the local government or whatever and they have to listen to all those people and the comments and then decide.

So yes, it depends on the issue, some are more controversial than the others, but pretty much pretty much all projects you need to have these environmental evaluations and decision you can make and it's usually pretty interesting .[...]

Brian: So when you starting working, how much of the job would you have to learn on the job that school didn't prepare you for?

Veronika: Oh, I don't know. The schools prepared me well for the technical issues and sciences and engineer and all that, so you know what you need to do to reduce emissions, like what you need to do and what technology you can use,and whats available and the alternatives and stuff. So I think the school prepares you for the technical issues quite well, but the environmental issues everything is usually even though you are working in Herr there's always everything, you're reducing emissions, but you're[....if you heard of the ... case, you should go with the ... to ... 10:40] you may be accruing something somewhere, but it's actually causing degradations somewhere else.

So as an environmental scientist you really need to understand the big picture and you need to know about kind of everything, air, and water, and waste, law, and environmental law, and costs as well. So it's kind of interdisciplinary field, so my degree was actually really good preparation to understand all the aspects of the environmental field.

The political stuff, yeah, I was not really prepared for, it was kind of on the job training. Different interests groups and how they present their cases and how you go about to resolve it and come up with some kind of solution that everyone would be happy with. But it's usually , based on my experience, I have about 15 years experience, unfortunately, pretty much like 99.9% of the time [on how its voted], you know, it's always the economical interests that are important.

Brian: So it's an uphill battle?

Veronika: Yeah, I see myself as more of slowing, the environmental degradation then preventing it. I guess there is no way, the way our society is, the way it works, so the economy and the those interests always take precedence over the environment. So, it's more like you know maybe they will not destroy it as much, but there is always you know obstructions. So you know, I see myself as helping to slow the process.

Brian: What do you think the US needs the most work on as it relates to environmental issues

Veronika: Well I have to say, I'm a little disappointed, especially in the last couple of years, at [...] companies, they have all these locations all over the world, so I have been working with for them and doing quite a bit doing [...], sustainability, and sustainable development, they want to be a green company, and one the first thing they asked me to do is to look at what the other companies are doing, so with the research I really surprised myself how the US is behind and US companies are so far behind the European, Canadian and Japanese companies. They seem to be way ahead in terms of sustainable development and social responsibility.

And this other country, I read somewhere, that compared to Europe and Japan the US is like up to like 25 to 50% less efficient, which is huge. 25 compared to Europe and 50 compared to Japan, so that's huge when you think about it. The US is definetly behind and a very wasteful country.

You just saw how the US car companies are just behind, like GM. I actually worked for them in the mid 90s, at the California Air Research, working on the Electric Vehicle program, while the other car companies were, you know, they didn't like it, I mean no one likes to be regulated, [but they were like work with me], but the US car companies, especially GM, they were so fighting us you know, just getting in the way, so I could tell you in the mid 90s, there were going to fail because they were so reluctant, and didn't want to make any investment in any new, less-polluting energy efficient technology, while Honda and Toyota went ahead and did.

So after that now, I guess I could see, way back then, so that's why I think it's so wrong, because as a business they just made bad decisions, so why should we bail them.

Brian: So, going back to your job, what would you say you like most about your job?

Veronika: 2 things

I do like to be kind of like to be an independent consultant, you really get to work on different issues with a lot of different minds [...]. So I like that a lot. When you work at the government it's kind of slow and you're always in the same area. There's not a lot of flexibility and all that.

But the downside of course is that everything is always [...16:30...] you have no security, no insurance, you're completely on your own. So the government has a lot of security and stuff.

Um, and you know I chose the field because I wanted to do something meaningful and you know make my contribution, so I feel that, you know, it's definitely not what I thought, I was definitely naive when I was studying as a student thinking that I was going to save the world. I was definitely naive I guess, but at the same time I think that I'm helping at least somewhat making some kind of contribution to save the environment. You know I could not be working in the defense industry, like making weapons. I'm happy with what I do. I believe it has some [...17:32] payback [...].

Brian: What do you think is the coolest thing about your job? What do you think someone would be most excited about becoming an environmental scientist?

Veronika: Well I just said that, you're making a difference and making things better. Honestly, when the environment is gone, we are gone as a species, as a human race. I think people just keep forgetting about it, there's still disagreements about climate change, even though there is a lot of uncertainty, I'm not saying I can predict the future, but I think it's still better to error on the side of being more protective. You know when we destroy this planet we don't have anywhere else to go. So, to me it's an essential and basic thing that we should all be trying to conserve it as much as we can and avoid [18:46 ...]. And we just keep forgetting about it. And they just behave as if there were just endless resources, and that there's a limited capacity. I think that people in general tend to forget about that.

So, anybody who is aware of it and wants to work in the field I think, I find it very interesting, because like I said, you're just dealing with all these really interesting issues.

Brian: Yeah they all matter in the real world, the stuff that you deal with

Veronika: Yeah, again, [19:25...] we have this emissions in the air, like how can you make it less polluted can you make the air cleaner, or the water, or the waste. To me it's just like you are dealing with these real issues. I find it interesting. Science to me in general, the sciences [...] very interesting on how it all works and to figure out you know why this is happening and how can we change it is [...19:52] to me.

Brian: Yeah, just having a deeper understanding for everything

Veronika: Yeah and again, it's essential, this is our life, I mean we're dependent on the environment I mean you know the air breathe the water we drink I mean this is it. So if it's depleted, you know, we're going to be sick or dying, so hahah, so I mean how can you not be interested? Haha, but um, people are not.

Yeah so for people that are actually paying attention to what's happening in the world being an environmental scientist lets you work in that right direction cuz you know what's happening

Yeah, if you're aware of it on an everyday basis and you understand why certain things are happening and what the impact is could be in the future and the ramifications you know and uh. So sometimes yeah, maybe the downside would be that you know too much, haha.

Brian:Yeah and you have to actually live with all that knowledge.

Veronika: Sometimes it is kinda of depressing because everywhere I look it's like O gosh, but um it's a neat thing, I mean on one hand I see a lot of good efforts I mean with the Internet and information flowing there's an incredible increase of awareness of the issues, you know much more then in the past. Because people can be forwarding all these things like spread around very quickly so it's amazing and there's definitely all these [...21:26] organizations non profits they're amazing, so I think on the grass roots level there's definitely a lot of effort unprecedented. Which is great, um, on the other hand you know whether this is enough or is it like you know too little too late I mean we'll see. haha.

Brian: What do you think has changed the most in the last 10 years as it revolves around being an environmental scientists?

Veronika: Um, to me I don't really see anything that I could point to that has changed. Again it all..it kind of fluctuates, you know Obama is president so, you know he's obviously more for environmental For the last 8 years under Bush administration were really bad at least for the environment as you know, he revoked the Kyoto Protocol I mean its just like he did everything he could to make things ...unfortunately for me I was at the EPA in Washington DC under his administration so working on climate change so I can tell you that it was just it was really bad I mean they just didn't want us to do anything I mean they didn't even recognize the climate change as an issue until you know until you know almost the end of his administration. So it was very frustrating for me the 8 years of his rule, haha, were very frustrating or very bad for the environmental people.

Brian: So it was mostly 10 years of stagnation

Veronika: It wasn't just stagnation, he reversed a bunch of , it wasn't just stagnation it actually got worse so, so no you know under Obama it looks good again he's much more pro environmental and alternative energy and all that so things are looking up right now so so again it really kind of goes in these cycles because you know is the kind administration [...23:48] just had the policies the politics the markets and everything so hoping for the next 4 or 8 years will be um will be good again so we'll see.

Fin

And so that wraps up our interview with a hopeful outlook of things to come. I'd like to thank Veronika for taking the time out of her busy day to share her thoughts and experiences with LetsWorkGreen's users and wish her well.