The safety of our water is a subject that’s grabbing a lot of headlines lately. Whether it’s something as sensational as the BP Oil spill or whether we drink it out of a tap or buy in a bottle is safer, our usage of water is rapidly becoming something the public is realizing must be more thoroughly studied. Thus, it’s creating a new form of engineer, simply called the Water Engineer.

Water engineering has its share of concerns. They include the construction of public water aqueducts to how to safe, bottled refreshment. It is so new it should be particularly appealing to those who are looking to be on both the cutting edge of technological development and wanting to make a major contribution to the world at large, another reason to look in to your course online.

This new discipline grew out of civil engineering. The need on how to handle the world’s water situation made water engineering spin off into its own specialty. Among the problems it handles include water treatment plants, subsystems such as overflow basins, purification systems, sludge lagoons and water waste management. Another aspect of the field works on pipelines, water distribution and storage. A water engineer has a number of places where to work, whether it’s a major metropolitan area’s water system to rural mega-farms’ water silos and piping.

Another sort of water engineer concentrates on chemical, biological, or other wastewater treatment methods to prepare water, analyze and recommend sludge treatment or disposal, flood drainage systems, stabilize river banks, repair channel streams, or even design bridges. You can begin your training in these fields today with your electrical engineering degree.

As in all forms of engineering, anyone who wants to pursue this specialty should start with good grades in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) field in high school. They then should enroll in an online or brick-and-mortar university with a strong curriculum in the civil engineering with minors in other disciplines such as chemical, biological and mechanical in order to get their engineering masters degree. After graduating, they should look for a work-study relationship with firm with a reputation in the field.

At this point water engineers work by day and continue their studies off hours. This is where education usually goes more online. It’s not uncommon for such firms to offer some sort of tuition reimbursement for those courses taken and passed. As it stands, water engineers generally have a Masters degree or even a PhD.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the mean annual wages of a water engineer is over $72,000 with full benefits. It also projects there will be a 20% growth for water engineer position in the next ten years due to the current need. This is twice the national average.

So while it is true that water engineering is a relatively new field, one need only look at today’s headlines to see why it’s also going to be growing in leaps and bounds. It’s the kind of profession that should also be in high demand not only now but for some time to into the immediate future.