Environmental Scientist

AXIS is seeking an Environmental Scientist to contribute to our support to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s national drinking water program.  The successful candidate will provide technical support in the development and revision of drinking water standards, underground injection rules and other Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) rulemakings through data collection and analysis; risk evaluation, assessment, and communication; occurrence and treatment studies; and economic analysis.

Specific areas of responsibility focus on evaluating the environmental benefits of proposed regulatory approaches, including health effects data and risks of exposure to contaminants; analyzing contaminant fate and transport; analyzing information on technologies that prevent contamination and that detect and remove contaminants; managing and analyzing contaminant occurrence data; and analyzing compliance costs in the development and revision of standards and rulemakings.  The candidate will also provide technical support to ensure sustainability of drinking water systems and infrastructure through effective management processes, further development of coordinated approaches to improving access to safe drinking water and assisting the EPA in encouraging water system owners and operators to adopt sustainable management practices.  Successful candidates will have understanding of water supply, including source water management, storage, treatment, and transmission/distribution.

Qualifications

A successful candidate will be able to:

• Leverage extensive knowledge of water sector infrastructure to produce insightful scientific resources of practical use to the water industry, including under-served communities
• Contribute technical expertise to the development and implementation of projects to support EPA's grants and loan programs for the water sector
• Facilitate the design and production of meaningful adult outreach, education and training opportunities to address drinking water and clean water challenges facing the spectrum of systems from very small to very large utilities
• Master's Degree in Environmental Science or related field
• A minimum of 5-years' experience working as an Environmental Scientist

Responsibilities

• Work with program and project staff to support technical, insightful, and practical deliverables that meet client needs
• Lead projects on issues related to EPA’s national drinking water regulatory program
• Support and lead the development of guidance documents, reports, case studies, presentations, and other documents related to federal, state, and local drinking water issues
• Provide technical assistance to states and drinking water purveyors, including utilities and under-served or disadvantaged communities
• Provide technical and policy analysis on infrastructure grant and loan programs to help EPA achieve priorities of infrastructure funding such as improving access to clean drinking water, replacing lead service lines, advancing social equity and environmental justice, and making America's water infrastructure more resilient
• Develop recommendations and innovative approaches to improve the efficacy and reach of EPA's Office of Water grant and loan programs, including metrics to evaluate these programs