{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/environmental-engineering-technologists-and-technicians/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Environmental Engineering Technologists and Technicians", "soc_code": "17-3025", "category": "Engineering", "us_employment": 12190, "median_annual_wage": 59920 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 41, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 9, "embodiment": 13, "liability_shield": 5, "trust_premium": 6, "judgment_accountability": 8 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "At 9 the split is real: NPDES discharge monitoring reports, Title V deviation logs, and Method 25A stack test writeups are template-driven text a model drafts from the raw data file, while nobody automates lowering a bailer into a monitoring well or swapping a hi-vol filter in February — a 9 rather than 13 because even the field half is procedure-scripted (EPA SW-846, chain-of-custody forms) rather than judgment-scripted.", "embodiment": "13 reflects that sampling rounds happen where the contamination is — active landfills, Superfund cuts, confined-space wet wells, elevated stack platforms requiring fall protection and often 40-hour HAZWOPER — but it stops at 13 because a substantial share of days are spent in a lab or at a desk reducing the data you collected, unlike a field-only inspector.", "liability_shield": "5 rather than 0 because the certifications that gate parts of this work are real — HAZWOPER, state wastewater operator grades, NIOSH 582 for asbestos air sampling, DOT hazmat shipper training — but none of them is a licence that makes you personally answerable for a permit determination; the PE seal and the responsible official's signature on the Title V certification carry that.", "trust_premium": "6 fits because you build working familiarity with the plant operators, the state DEQ inspector, and the client's EHS manager over repeat sampling visits, and being the person who knows where the sample ports are has value — but the deliverable is a defensible number in a lab-validated dataset, and the client would accept it from a different technician at the same firm next quarter.", "judgment_accountability": "8 sits above pure procedure because you decide when a sample is invalid, whether a matrix spike recovery kills the batch, when field conditions mean the run gets aborted, and when an exceedance gets escalated same-day — but the exceedance interpretation, the remedy selection, and the notification-to-agency call go up the chain to the project engineer, so you own the data quality, not the consequence." }, "rationale": "Roughly half this job is field work AI cannot touch — collecting soil, water, air and stack samples, installing and calibrating monitoring equipment, walking remediation sites and treatment plants, checking that installed pollution controls match the design. The other half is exactly what language models eat: drafting permit applications and compliance reports, tabulating monitoring data against regulatory limits, summarizing sampling results, maintaining records. The technician does not sign the filing — a licensed PE does — so there is no personal liability shield, which is why the desk half of the role is genuinely exposed.", "outlook": "Headcount holds roughly flat but the mix shifts hard: report-drafting and data-compilation hours collapse into AI-assisted workflows, while sampling, instrument calibration and site oversight become the whole job.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "EPA/state chain-of-custody and data-integrity rules that require a named, individually certified sampler to attest to each sample (already partial: NELAP/TNI lab accreditation, state-certified operator rules, EPA Method 25/stack-testing 'qualified individual' requirements under 40 CFR 60 Appendix A, and ASTM E1527 Phase I ESA 'environmental professional' attestation). If field sampling attestation becomes a personal certification signature — e.g. a state requiring a certified sampler's name and license number on every groundwater monitoring event for RCRA/CERCLA sites — the field half gains a shield the desk half never had", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "State licensure of the sampler/technician tier itself, following the existing model for wastewater and drinking-water treatment operators (Grade I-IV state operator certification under SDWA/CWA) being extended to remediation-site and air-monitoring technicians", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift: this role genuinely has two tiers. If permit drafting, limit tabulation and monitoring-report boilerplate are absorbed by AI, what remains is field sampling, equipment calibration and troubleshooting, and anomaly investigation — deciding whether an exceedance is real or an instrument drift. The measured score for the residual job rises even though total headcount may fall", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "Formal ownership of the QA/QC decision: if EPA data-quality objectives guidance or state audit practice makes a named technician responsible for accepting or rejecting a sampling event, flagging holding-time violations, and declaring data usable — the call that determines whether a site is deemed clean — the ambiguity call sits with this role rather than the PE", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "embodiment", "change": "Growth in confined-space, stack, and PFAS/emerging-contaminant sampling where sub-part-per-trillion work requires meticulous manual field blank and equipment blank protocols that resist robotic handling; EPA's PFAS drinking water rule (2024) is already expanding this sampling workload", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 2 } ], "ceiling_note": "Trust premium has no realistic route — buyers are regulators and clients purchasing a compliant filing, and none of them pay extra for a human technician. The liability levers all attach to the field half; the desk half stays exposed regardless, so realistic ceiling is roughly the low-to-mid 50s." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2019, "emp": 18010, "wage": 50620 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 17070, "wage": 51630 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 14910, "wage": 48390 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 13400, "wage": 50980 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 13780, "wage": 54000 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 12500, "wage": 58890 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 12190, "wage": 59920 } ], "from": 2019, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -32.3, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": false }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "nuclear-engineers", "title": "Nuclear Engineers", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 57, "median_wage": 133970, "overlap": 78, "skills_to_close": [ "Mathematics", "Operations Analysis", "Complex Problem Solving", "Technology Design" ] }, { "slug": "agricultural-engineers", "title": "Agricultural Engineers", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 52, "median_wage": 98590, "overlap": 72, "skills_to_close": [ "Systems Evaluation", "Writing", "Complex Problem Solving", "Mathematics" ] }, { "slug": "architectural-and-engineering-managers", "title": "Architectural and Engineering Managers", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 56, "median_wage": 171270, "overlap": 69, "skills_to_close": [ "Complex Problem Solving", "Writing", "Coordination", "Judgment and Decision Making" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }