Salary: $53,964.00 – $72,552.00 Annually
Location: Thurston County – Lacey, WA
Job Type: Project (limited duration)

The Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction program within the Department of Ecology is looking to fill a Chemical Action Planner (Environmental Planner 2) position. 

This position is located at one of the following locations:

Headquarters Office in Lacey, WA.
Northwest Region Office (NWRO) in Shoreline, WA.
Central Region Office (CRO) in Union Gap, WA.
Eastern Region Office (ERO) in Spokane, WA. 
Upon hire, you must live within a commutable distance from the duty station.

Are you interested protecting people and the environment from hazardous chemicals? As our new Chemical Action Planner, you will assist with developing a 6PPD Action Plan to identify impacts to human health and the environment from 6PPD. 6PPD, the chemical responsible for Urban Runoff Mortality Syndrome (URMS),  is a preservative found in vehicle tires that breaks down to 6PPD quinone, which is a chemical that is shown to be toxic to some fish species, especially Coho. During some storm events tire wear particles are transported into streams causing 6PPD/q to enter the streams, which can be toxic to fish, especially migrating Coho.
 
This is an exciting opportunity to help develop a plan to identify impacts from 6PPD and make recommendations to mitigate those impacts. This position, in consultation with the 6PPD Lead Planner, will lead many of the day to day tasks to develop the 6PPD Action Plan. This work includes addressing environmental justice by prioritizing communities and vulnerable populations that have the highest risks or impacts from hazardous chemicals.

Program Mission: The mission of the Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program (HWTR) is to protect Washington’s residents and environment by reducing the use of toxic chemicals, safely managing dangerous waste, preventing new contaminated sites, and cleaning up contamination.  

Please Note: This is a project position that is funded until June 30, 2025. The Funding for this position has a high probability of being renewed for the next bi-annual budget.

Tele-work options for this position: This position will be eligible for up to a 90% tele-work schedule. Applicants with questions about position location options, tele-work, and flexible or compressed schedules are encouraged to reach out to the contact person listed below in “other information.” Schedules are dependent upon position needs and are subject to change.

Application Timeline: This position will remain open until filled, we will review applications on August 3, 2023 . In order to be considered, please submit an application on or before August 2, 2023. If your application isn’t received by this date, it may not be considered. The agency reserves the right to make a Hire any time after the initial screening date. 

What makes this role unique? 

This position serves as a journey level environmental planner responsible for supporting the development of a 6PPD Action Plan (AP). The AP will identify the potential human health and environmental effects of 6PPD and recommend strategies to reduce or eliminate those impacts.                             
 
This position, as the Chemical Action Planner, leads many of the day-to-day aspects of developing the 6PPD AP. You would work with the 6PPD Lead Planner to develop a schedule and process for development of the AP. With support from the 6PPD Lead planner, you would bring together a technical team to work on development of the AP, stand up an advisory committee to inform scope and content, and coordinate the development of the AP. This position will coordinate with the program Environmental Justice (EJ) planner, Ecology’s Office of EJ and Equity, Department of Health (DOH), and others, to integrate environmental justice and equity into the 6PPD AP.

What you will do: 

  • Plan, convene, and facilitate a multi-disciplinary team to develop a 6PPD/q Action Plan.
  • Conduct planning related activities, research, data collection and outreach during 6PPD/q AP development.
  • Draft, edit and finalize the 6PPD/q AP, in coordination with HWTR Program’s communications staff.
  • Consult with the HWTR program’s community outreach staff on internal and external stakeholder communications, public comment and engagement, and Tribal engagement.
  • Integrate environmental justice obligations, priorities, and measures into the 6PPD/q AP development and recommendations.
  • Develop presentations, speeches, conduct public meetings, work with interested parties, and convene working groups and conduct outreach and education activities.
  • Coordinate working with Ecology programs and DOH technical experts, planners and managers to prioritize, plan and complete work on the 6PPD/q AP.

Required Qualifications:
Years of required experience indicated below are full-time equivalent years. Full-time equivalent experience means that any experience where working hours were less than 40 hours per week will be prorated in order to meet the equivalency of full-time. We would calculate this by looking at the total hours worked per week, divide this by 40, and then multiply by the total number of months worked. Examples of the proration calculations are:

  • 30 hours worked per week for 20 months: (30/40) x 20 months = 15 months full-time equivalent
  • 20 hours worked per week for 12 months: (20/40) x 12 months = 6 months full-time equivalent

Experience for both required and desired qualifications can be gained through various combinations of formal professional employment, education, and volunteer experience. See below for how you may qualify.

Option One:
A Bachelor’s degree in land use, urban, regional, environmental, or natural resource planning, landscape architecture, geography, land use or environmental law, public administration with an environmental emphasis, chemistry, biology, toxicology or closely related field,
AND 
Three years of professional experience in land use, urban, regional, environmental, or natural resource planning, chemistry, biology, toxicology and/or program development.

Option Two:
A Master’s degree or above with major emphasis in land use, urban, regional, environmental, or natural resource planning, landscape architecture, geography, land use or environmental law, public administration with an environmental emphasis, chemistry, biology, toxicology or closely related field,
AND 
One year of professional experience in land use, urban, regional, environmental, or natural resource planning, chemistry, biology, toxicology and/or program development.

Option Three:
One year of experience as an Environmental Planner 1 at Ecology.

Desired Qualifications:
We highly encourage you to apply even if you do not have some (or all) of the desired experience below.

  • Experience assessing the environmental or health impacts of hazardous chemicals. This may include environmental toxicology, human health toxicology or environmental chemistry.
  • Experience with toxics use legislation and/or program development. 
  • Experience with rulemaking projects or major environmental policy issues.
  • Experience with environmental justice data and methods, and social and economic based environmental health disparities.

Application Instructions

It’s in the applicant’s best interest to submit all of the documents listed below. Applications without these documents may be declined.

  • A cover letter describing why you are interested in this position.
  • A resume outlining your experience and education (if applicable) as it relates to the minimum qualifications of this position.
  • A list of three professional references.

For more information and to apply: https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/washington/jobs/4125501/chemical-action-planner-environmental-planner-2

An image without description