My name is Sean Brustuen and I am a junior civil engineering major at Colorado State University. I had an internship over the summers of 2013 and 2014 for West Central Environmental Consultants, Inc. WCEC is a Minnesota-based company that specializes in the design and operation of large-scale remediation systems to eliminate contaminants from groundwater, surface waters, soils, and polluted air. WCEC has environmental remediation systems in Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and several other states.

Over these two summers I gained experience both in the field and in the office. My time in the field involved traveling to contaminated sites and assisting in the operation and monitoring of multiphase extraction systems and in-situ chemical oxidation systems to eliminate volatile organic compounds from the groundwater. Fieldwork included the collection of pressure influence data across underground piping networks and the collection of water samples for laboratory analysis. In the office I assisted project engineers with system data analysis that included geospatial influence mapping and the preparation of technical reports.

My favorite part about the internship was getting involved with the separate departments of the company and learning how all the people from different divisions came together to accomplish a unified goal of project completion. Working with West Central Environmental Consultants was a rewarding experience that exposed me to aspects of civil engineering that haven’t been matched in the classroom.