Environmental careers talk

Christine Urban, a special projects manager with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago since 1987, will talk about careers with environmental government offices and agencies.

Urban started her EPA career in the Safe Drinking Water Section, where she tracked Indiana water suppliers’ compliance with federal drinking water quality standards.

For the last two decades she has managed large, watershed-scale water quality studies and technical assistance projects in the Midwest as the special projects manager for the Watersheds and Wetlands Branch. 

As a project manager, Urban managed a mercury and PCB Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study covering the State of Michigan, and a TMDL study for the nearshore of Lake Michigan in Illinois. The studies identified sources and loading reductions needed to bring waters into compliance with the state’s water quality standards. 

She has worked with agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers, and Illinois state representatives on the Lieutenant Governor’s Illinois River Coordinating Council on comprehensive water quality planning. 

In 1998 she received Vice President Al Gore’s Hammer Award for building a better government in recognition of her role in authoring and negotiating a mercury and solid waste reduction agreement with the American Hospital Association. 

Urban holds a bachelor of science in environmental engineering from Northwestern University. Her visit is sponsored by the Augustana Sierra Club.