EPA – Water Innovation Research Participation Opportunity

Zintellect is offering an internship opportunity at the EPA's Office of Water in Washington, DC. Participants will engage in research on water management topics including green infrastructure, stormwater policies, and climate change impacts. The role involves developing a research product to enhance career prospects and learning about EPA operations, policy communication, and collaboration with various stakeholders. The internship may require travel for data collection.
A research project training opportunity is currently available at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Water. This internship will be served with the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds (OWOW) in the Assessment, Watershed and Protection Division (AWPD) in Washington, DC.

The participant will be involved in research on one or more of the following areas: water sensitive urban design/development and redevelopment, green infrastructure, low impact development (LID), storm water management, integrated water resource management, rainwater harvesting, real time control systems, life-cycle analyses of green infrastructure systems and practices, storm water policies including codes and ordinances, incentives, public private partnerships, best practice operation and maintenance , program evaluation and monitoring, economic analyses of storm water programs, the nexus between energy and water, climate change and infrastructure resiliency, flood damage mitigation via the use of green infrastructure, and aquifer recharge benefits through the use of green infrastructure. The research can be focused on policy, technical issues or some combination of these two areas. Specific topics that also pertain to this research include: urban forestry, smart growth, community livability, and green transportation systems and benefits analyses. The project may involve travel to examine and collect existing data from state and local governments and other entities conducting research. The participant will develop a research product that will help her/him further her/his career. This product will be either technical, analytical or policy oriented and will represent a new perspective on water resources management; the project is intended to help open career doors to the participant.

Through the ORISE experience, the participant will learn:
• How EPA functions, how EPA partners with local, state, and federal governments local and NGOs
• How to prepare technical, policy and programmatic resources to further EPA’s mission
• Best management practice/system performance
• How to analyze, evaluate and develop performance metrics relating to water resource management
• How to refine existing skills needed to develop and communicate policy and scientific issues to decision makers and the general public
• Skills in interacting, communicating and partnering with the scientific/engineering/land use planning/water resource management community to protect and restore water resources

This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and EPA.