Board Certified Environmental Engineer?

Is anyone a board certified environmental engineer, or thinking about applying in the future? The certification is issued by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers. 

I thought about it but decided I'm not interested in more exams.

I recently went through the "oral" exam for that - I think if you have more than 12 or 15 years of experience you can do that, as opposed to the written exam.  Seems like a legit certification based on the number of textbook authors and such that list it after their names.  I think it might be worthwhile in our particular field, especially for acedemics and government environmental engineers.  However, my experience with the organization itself, as opposed to the BCEEs, has been less than stellar.  Upon applying I received zero correspondence from them, and had to follow up on my own for everything.  This resulted in an extremely long and drawn out process. I am still not a BCEE nor do I know if I will be, but at this point I "believe" I have checked all the right boxes. Only time will tell if my certification arrives in the mail, or if I have to contact them again to ask for it.  

Just wanted to follow up on this:  I did finally receive my certification.  Now that I am a BCEE, I must keep up with continuing education requirements and fees.  I think it will be worth it, at least in terms of the enhancement of my professional qualifications to my employer (who will not pay for it, though, of course).  

To be fair, part of the problem with the length of time it took to get certified was the fact that I was living overseas, but I still hold AAEES accountable for the lack of communication during that process.  

Hopefully some day I will be able to participate in committees and meetings and such, and begin networking.  

Never heard of such a thing...how is this different from PE licensure? There is something similar for petroleum but I always thought it was for people who didn't have or want to supply credentials for licensure.

It's been around since the 50s, in the form of "DEE" (Diplomate in Environmental Engineering) and is something that is considered a more advanced certification than a PE - a PE is a requirement to be considered, as is 8 years experience (4 in responsible charge) and either a written or oral exam before a panel of peers (oral exam for candidates with considerably more experience).  

I don't know about your field, but in mine, the more traditional "sanitary" and public health side of environmental engineering, it does seem to carry some weight.  

Hello Dleg,

I am thinking of applying to BCEE. If possible, could you please share your oral exam experience?

Sure, to the extent that I don't compromise the exam process.

My oral exam was held at a nearby university, and was proctored by two local BCEEs.  I had asked them for several months what to prepare for, and they, in turn, asked AAEES for guidance.  The only guidance that came back was that there was no real way to prepare (unlike with the written exam, for which i understand there is a preparation guide book), and to just show up and answer as best I could.

The exam was a little more formal than I was expecting.  They showed up with prepared question sets for the specialty that I was applying for (water supply and wastewater).  There were two question sets for me.  Each one was focused on a specific and specialized subject within my industry.  They were not necessarily subjects that would have been taught in school (they were pretty narrowly focused), but definitely topics that you would know something about if you had been working in the industry for 12 or more years, or whatever the minimum is for the oral exam option.  Once they read the basic description of the scenario or subject, then they would start asking the scripted questions, which were designed to provide for more of a discussion, definitely not problem solving type stuff.  During my answers, they would ask clarifying questions and take lots of notes.  I have no idea what the criteria is for passing or failing, maybe they told me, but I get the impression that it's a combination of your answers (they must have some guidance on what the correct range of answers could be) and the interviewer's judgment of whether or not you actually know what you're talking about.

Obviously I can't share with you what the topics or questions were, but I did see that they were pre-prepared, printed question sets, so obviously this is a pretty well organized system, and I can only guess that they have several question sets to choose from for each specialty.  The two topics I was given happened to be ones that I had some personal experience with, so that was a relief, but one of them was on a subject that I had not personally, directly performed work, so I stated that to the proctors and tried my best anyway, which was adequate because I was at least familiar with the subject from the implementation side, if not the theory/standards side.  

So I'd say just go in sharp and well rested, and you should do fine.  Of course, if you're doing the written exam, I have no idea what to expect there.  I think they provide a study guide for that.