Environmental Specialist

Alex Renew is one of the most advanced wastewater utilities in the United States, serving over 300,000 customers in Alexandria, VA, and parts of Fairfax County. Each year, our facility processes and treats approximately 13 billion gallons of wastewater received from area homes, schools, and businesses to protect public health and the environment. If you are interested in working for a leader in the wastewater industry, we invite qualified candidates to apply for our Environmental Specialist position.

What we do and how we do it is driven by our five Goals:

• Operational Excellence: Taking proactive steps to meet current and future challenges.
• Thriving Workforce: Investing in our staff and fostering a culture of belonging.
• Strategic Partnerships: Promoting watershed-level thinking.
• Environmental Sustainability: Being good stewards of our resources to minimize our impact.
• Commitment to the Community: Strengthening connections with the public and providing affordable service.

The Environmental Specialist plays a critical role in improving water quality through the day-to-day management of Alex Renew’s industrial pretreatment, stormwater, and emerging contaminants programs. Reporting to the Water Quality Manager, this essential position requires sound independent judgment, excellent communication skills, expertise in local, state and federal water quality and biosolids regulations, and a commitment to safety.

• Manage the Industrial Pretreatment Program in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local requirements, including 40 CFR Part 403, the VPDES permit, and local Sewer Use Ordinance.
• Draft and implement standard operating procedures (SOPs) for inspections, sampling, permitting, and enforcement of industrial wastewater discharge permits, control mechanisms, special conditions, and compliance schedules.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with industrial users, conduct surveys, maintain accurate inventories and regulatory determinations.
• Conduct inspections and facility investigations to characterize operations, waste streams, pollutant sources, and pretreatment system performance and maintain accurate user inventories.
• Review all required submittals for completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and regulatory adequacy.
• Support development and periodic review of local limits to protect treatment processes, biosolids quality, worker safety, and receiving waters.
• Implement compliance activities related to dental amalgam, slug discharge control, spill prevention, and other best management practice requirements, as applicable.
• Prepare and submit required regulatory reports, annual pretreatment program documentation, and other compliance deliverables within established deadlines.
• Maintain auditable program records, inspection files, enforcement documentation, and monitoring data in accordance with retention requirements and internal policy.
• Review proposed industrial developments, process changes, and new discharge requests to determine pretreatment applicability, permitting needs, and potential impacts to the WRRF and collection system.
• Monitor regulatory changes, guidance, and enforcement trends and advise management on impacts, implementation strategies, and program updates needed to maintain compliance.
• Maintain effective working relationships with industrial users, operations, laboratory, engineering, regulatory agencies and other stakeholders to support program effectiveness.

• Manage the Industrial Stormwater Program in compliance with applicable federal, state, local requirements and best management practices, internal procedures, and program goals.
• Update and implement Stormwater Program SOPs.
• Conduct quarterly stormwater sampling, inspections, monitoring, and field assessments using approved procedures and safety practices.
• Support pollution prevention, illicit discharge identification, spill response, and corrective action activities to protect the collection system, WRRF, and receiving waters.
• Maintain organized program records, monitoring data, inspection files, equipment documentation, and compliance materials.

• Conduct quarterly monitoring on priority pollutants and PFAS, analyze trends and make recommendations.
• Manage PFAS sampling program, coordinate with laboratories and consultants to ensure timely, accurate results.
• Analyze PFAS data for compliance with biosolids requirements, report data to Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
• Review quarterly PFAS monitoring data received from the SIU Program to ensure completeness, accuracy, and compliance with applicable monitoring and reporting requirements for submittal to DEQ.
• Evaluate analytical data, sampling methods, preservation, holding times, chain-of-custody, and QA/QC documentation to ensure data defensibility and regulatory usability.
• Ensure proper maintenance, inspection, and calibration of field instruments, sampling…