Environmental Control

Do you want to measure what mining and industry leave behind in the air, water and soil? Cambrian College’s Environmental Control programme is a three-semester Ontario College Graduate Certificate, completed in one year at the Barrydowne campus in Sudbury. It focuses on monitoring ecosystems affected by the mining industry, with a strong emphasis on reporting results for environmental assessments.

Semester one covers Air Quality Assessment, Hydrology & Water Quality Assess, Experimental Design & Data Analysis, Ecological Monitoring, GIS Applications, Water Remediation Techniques and Industrial Impact Management. Semester two takes those skills further with Environmental Impact Assess & Model, Air Pollution Abatement, Geomatics, Site Assessment and Reporting, Hydrology II, Ecological Monitoring II and Environmental Toxicology. Together these courses teach you to sample, analyse and report on the air, water, soil and ecology of an industrial site.

Cambrian teaches hands-on monitoring skills in a LEED gold-certified building, and Environmental Control prepares you to write the Water Operator-in-Training (OIT) exam. Semester three is a four-week Work Placement: Glencore has hosted students for groundwater and surface water sampling, air monitoring and lab work, and Englobe for phased environmental site assessments, asbestos surveys, air quality monitoring and report preparation. The mining-affected landscape around Sudbury gives the programme its distinctive focus.

Graduates work as environmental technicians, environmental monitoring specialists, site assessment technicians, water quality technicians and environmental compliance coordinators with consulting and engineering firms, government ministries, municipalities, non-profits and industries such as mining, pulp and paper, logging and construction. It suits science or engineering graduates who want field-ready monitoring and reporting skills.