Brett Mustoe

Opportunities and Experiences in environmental consulting

Brett Mustoe is a principal geologist and vice president at AECOM. He came to BYU on January 29th to speak on environmental consulting. His most recent project involves cleaning up the Geneva Steel Plant site near Vineyard, Utah.

"Why choose environmental geology?" Mustoe asked. With so many different options for a geologist, why did he go into environmental consulting? For one, environmental geology provides excellent job stability. While other careers, such as oil and gas, can be somewhat cyclical, there will always be environmental issues everywhere, necessitating a constant presence of environmental experts. Having so many issues provides prospective geologists with a variety of opportunities to work at many different levels, including technical and hands-on work, project and operations management, business development, and a multitude of other roles. For Mustoe, the biggest highlight of his career is when he gets to use detective work to uncover and solve real-world problems.

To become an environmental consultant, the best thing you can do is get a good education. "Learn how to learn," Mustoe advised. "You're in the right place!" He especially highlighted gaining knowledge in geology, hydrogeology, soils, and environmental geology. Getting experience in fieldwork and writing is equally important.

Mustoe is currently working on cleaning up the Geneva Steel Plant. This factory was built in the early 40s by the US Defense Plant Corp. after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The factory was sold to US Steel in 1946 and then later to Geneva Steel in 1987, operating until the early 2000s. Nearly 60 years of operation, when few environmental regulations existed, has meant a massive amount of effort in cleanup before the site is safe to use again.

Mustoe spends his time planning and overseeing the "how" of this cleanup. A large benzol plume surrounding the plant is his main concern, and he has designed a system to slowly flush out the high concentration of benzene. The system uses nine large horizontal wells that span the length of the plume at a depth of 30 ft. The wells are approximately 800 ft long and work within the constraints of water and gas mains north of the plant. Microslits are placed every foot and are designed to open at full pressure so that they can all be activated and shut off at the same time. As these microslits release bubbles at a low flow, the benzene is slowly released into the soil at a rate that can be consumed by microbes.

The ingenuity of the design of this factory took critical thinking and detective skills. If using such skills sounds interesting, Mustoe encourages students to try environmental geology out and discover if it's something they would love as much as he does.