Geoenvironmental Engineering

• Introduction
• Research
• Faculty
• Facilities and Resources
• Courses
• Qualifying Exam

Program Coordinator
Charles D. Shackelford
shackel@engr.colostate.edu
(970) 491-5051

Introduction

Geoenvironmental Engineering is the engineering of geologic (earthen) and geosynthetic (polymer) materials for problems related to the protection of human health and the environment.  The primary problems addressed by Geoenvironmental Engineers pertain to the protection of uncontaminated regions of the subsurface as well as the remediation or clean up of regions of the subsurface that have been contaminated by one or more events (e.g., industrial chemical spills, leaking waste containment facilities, leaking above-ground and underground storage tanks, infiltration of pesticides, etc.).

Since the nature of the problems addressed in Geoenvironmental Engineering is diverse, solutions to geoenvironmental problems typically require the expertise of a variety of professionals who possess a similar diversity in terms of  educational background and training.  Because of this diversity, efficient and effective technical interaction among these professionals can be problematic. Thus, professionals who have attained a breadth of knowledge in a variety of the disciplines associated with geoenvironmental problems can facilitate the professional interaction needed for successful completion of geoenvironmental projects within a multidisciplinary setting.

Accordingly, the Geoenvironmental Engineering program at CSU is an interdisciplinary program representing the intersection of Environmental Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, and Groundwater Engineering. Students in Geoenvironmental Engineering typically receive formal  in-depth  education in one of the three primary sub-disciplines of Geoenvironmental Engineering, as well as formal education in one or both of the other sub-disciplines as well as in several supporting science based disciplines (e.g., geological sciences, soil sciences).  

Graduate studies in Geoenvironmental Engineering typically consider issues like the following:

• Effects of waste liquids on barrier material properties (compatibility)
• Containment strategies for emerging waste forms (e.g., nanowaste, pharmaceutical waste, animal waste (prions))
• Contaminant transport through low-permeability soil barriers
• Development and evaluation of novel containment barrier materials
• Development and evaluation of subsurface remediation technologies
• Diffusion through polymer materials used as components of engineered barrier systems
• Evaluation of flow and transport models for predicting barrier and remediation system performance
• Geosynthetics for containment and remediation applications
• Geotechnical aspects of waste containment and remediation systems
• Leaching of contaminants from stabilized/solidified waste forms
• Mine waste containment and remediation
• Physical, chemical, and biological processes governing in situ remediation technologies
• Physico-chemical interactions between soils and contaminant liquids (sorption, ion exchange)
• Unsaturated flow through soil covers used for waste disposal

Research

Research activities in Geoenvironmental Engineering pertain primarily to the engineering aspects related to design, construction, and monitoring of containment facilities for a wide variety of waste disposal facilities (e.g., solid and hazardous waste landfills, impoundments, animal waste lagoons, evaporation ponds, etc.), as well as the development and evaluation of technologies for in situ remediation of subsurface contamination (e.g., in situ containment barriers, passive reactive barriers, stabilization and solidification, shallow and deep soil mixing, etc.). Current or recent research activities include (i) evaluating the significance of clay membrane behavior (solute restriction, chemico-osmosis) on contaminant transport through clay soils, (ii) determining the long-term (2-3 year) performance of geosynthetic clay liners exposed to chemical solutions, (iii) modeling the hydrologic water balance for alternative earthen covers used at waste disposal sites, (iv) modeling the use of sulfate reducing bacteria in permeable reactive treatment trenches for precipitation of metals in acid mine drainage, (v) characterizing the mobility and fate of organic compounds existing as mixtures in the subsurface, and (vi) evaluating the potential use of prefabricated vertical drains to accelerate the consolidation of in situ soils that have been mixed with zero-valent iron/clay slurries to treat contamination.

Faculty

The following faculty members are part of Colorado State's Geoenvironmental Engineering Program:

Charles Shackelford, Professor, Program Coordinator
Kenneth Carlson, Associate Professor
Thomas Sale, Research Scientist
Sybil Sharvelle, Assistant Professor
Ken Reardon, Professor (Dept. of Chemical & Biological Engineering)

Facilities and Resources

The graduate interdisciplinary program in Geoenvironmental Engineering has several facilities and resources to enhance graduate studies and research.  Laboratory facilities include the Geotechnical/Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory in the Glover Building (view pictures), and the Geoenvironmental Laboratory in the Engineering Building (view pictures). Students also work in the laboratories affiliated with the faculty who are involved in the program. These facilities include laboratories in Environmental and Groundwater Engineering within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as well as laboratories in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

Students have access to state-of-the-art computing facilities for numerical modeling and data analysis.  Additional computing resources are available from Engineering Network Services, who maintain several computer laboratories in the Engineering building as well as centralized networks and grids on workstations that are capable of processes very computationally intensive procedures. 

Courses

The graduate program in Geoenvironmental Engineering at CSU integrates three primary areas within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, viz., Geotechnical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Groundwater Engineering. The curriculum for the graduate Geoenvironmental Engineering program is generally flexible and allows students a wide range of courses to choose from in these three primary areas, as well as a number of additional courses offered in supporting areas,  such as the geological sciences, soil science, chemistry,  biology, and chemical engineering. The curriculum is tailored to the student's desires and needs based on their thesis or dissertation research.  This flexibility in curriculum makes the Geoenvironmental Engineering program particularly attractive for graduate students who either are unsure about focusing on a more traditional area of study or desire a more broad-based background to support their career objectives.

Required courses

Elective courses

Other common courses

PhD Qualifying Exam

The PhD Qualifying exam in the Geoenvironmental Engineering program is administered by the student’s PhD thesis committee and consists of both written and oral components.  For the written component, which is administered first, each committee member is asked to submit 2-4 questions/problems to the student’s advisor which are then assembled into a single written exam. The student then schedules with her/his advisor an 8-hr period over which the written exam is taken. The written exam then is graded by the committee members, and a follow-up oral component of the exam is scheduled approximately 1-2 weeks after the written exam. The final determination of the student's performance on the exam is based on the combined results of both the written and oral components.