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Expert Interview 

Joe R. Tamburini, P.E., is a senior engineer at Tetra Tech. He was recently awarded the Colorado American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) 2009 New Faces of Engineering Award. Mr. Tamburini was also recognized as a 2009 ACEC Young Professional of the Year – one of five awardees recognized nationally out of more than 60 nominations. The New Faces and Young Professional awards recognize outstanding performances by engineers under the age of 30.

Mr. Tamburini provides comprehensive water and wastewater treatment plant evaluations, planning, design, and construction administration services for clients across the United States.

Mr. Tamburini develops computer modeling and process simulation tools for water, wastewater and air emissions, and maintains the American Water Works Association (AWWA) licensed software: Model for Softening Calculations; Model for Corrosion Control & Process Chemistry; and, Blending Application Package 4.0. He is also a U.S. Patent co-author for “Solar Thermal Aerosol Flow Reaction Process” (patent #6,872,378).

Q:  Tell me about your educational and work background.
A:  I have a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from University of Colorado, and I worked at Intel and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory before coming to Tetra Tech. At Tetra Tech I was able to get into the line of work I was interested in, which is the design of treatment plants.

Q:  What are some of the projects you’ve worked on?
A:  I’ve done evaluations of wastewater plants to determine how the plant can produce better effluent water quality, and to save the clients money by optimizing their operation in terms of energy and chemical usage. I get to teach wastewater operation at classes across the country, which is fun. And then I’ve done quite a bit of design of wastewater and water treatment plants. I designed five treatment plants to help remove arsenic from contaminated groundwater to meet either potable drinking water standards or specific stream discharge standards.

Q:  What sorts of technologies are involved in that process?
A:  We use a whole gamut of technologies. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has certain Best-Available Technologies for arsenic removal, and we’ve done them all: ion exchange, coagulation and filtration, reverse osmosis membranes, adsorption medias – it just depends on the particular water treatment plant’s needs. That’s one of the things that’s so fun about this job: every project is unique, and while you can apply some of the things you learned from a previous project, no two plants are exactly the same. So it’s a new puzzle to figure out each time.

Q:  What makes them so different?
A:  Geographic location, contaminants in the groundwater, concentration of those contaminants, weather – all of those things contribute to a plant’s needs. I did an arsenic and antimony removal treatment plant for a gold mine in Nome, Alaska, that certainly has different needs than an arsenic removal plant in Phoenix, Arizona.

Q:  You’ve been able to be very hands-on with many projects, traveling all over the country since you started working for Tetra Tech.
A:  That’s one of the things I like about what I do – getting to follow a project from the very beginning. You can start at conceptual, benchscale testing, go through the design of a million-gallon-a-day treatment plant, and then oversee construction and training for the operators. You get a project done, and when it’s up and running, you know you contributed, and that’s the rewarding part.

Q:  You were recently named one of five national winners of the ACEC Young Professional of the Year Award. How do you think you got ACEC’s attention?
A:  Well, first, I was very surprised to win! But I have been able to work on a lot of different projects in my career, and some of them have been pretty unique. The Nome, Alaska, antimony removal, for example, is a unique process that no other treatment plant in the country is using. I was able to present that information at WEFTEC [Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference]. Presenting two papers at that conference this early in my career probably contributed to the award.

Q:  How do you get in on these unique projects at such a young age?
A:  The chemical engineering knowledge has definitely helped. It’s a unique major in this field, and my understanding of the chemical process, of how everything works, has been an asset. I would recommend any young engineer look into chemical engineering.

Q:  We hear you work on unique treatment problems for mines. Tell us about that.
A:  We’re presently creating treatment solutions to remove a number of different constituents from mining waste. The treatment plant uses three different types of membranes, and can greatly reduce and dispose of waste effluent. This is a process design that's new for our mining client.

Q:  What advice do you have for young engineers entering the field?
A:  One other thing I would encourage young engineers to do is become involved in professional organizations, like ACEC, WEF, and AWWA, for example. That lets you get your name out there and get things published, even on a local scale, and lets people know you have an interest in certain subjects.

Q:  How would you describe your work environment at Tetra Tech?
A:  We have the resources to work on the projects we want, and we have the freedom to pursue new ideas. It comes down to initiative. If managers know you’re interested, they’ll consider young engineers for new projects as they come up.