Helping people reuse unwanted property is one of Nina Marshtein's favorite parts of her job.  A graduate of The College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, Nina has honed her career on performing Phase I Environmental Site Assessments.  After graduation, she worked in a mine and for several consulting firms before setting out to open a brand new office in Charleston for SCS Engineers in 2005.   

Now, as Office Director, Nina is in charge of both her employees and her clients' projects.  Her 23 years of experience allow her to juggle these two widely different aspects of her career and has allowed her to grow her office into one of the most successful new offices in the area.

On the technical geology side of her job, Nina has established a long list of satisfied clients over the years by working with them and the regulators to allow undesirable, contaminated property to be reused after the threat to human health and the environment has been controlled.  She specializes in Phase I Environmental Site Assessments, or ESAs, which are the first step in the evaluation of a piece of property.

Based on the results of the ESA, Nina is able to help her clients to clean up and/or control any existing contamination which may be affecting the land and the people nearby.  This work will allow property that may have been previously abandoned to be redeveloped into a useful site for homes, businesses and parks.

Here is Nina's Geologist-on-the-Job Lowdown:

Mini Me Geology:  What are the best things about your job?

Nina:  Solving problems and making the situation work for the client where they can reuse less than perfect property.  Also, visiting old sites that are being excavated and finding cool stuff like bottles, china and old coins in the dirt that is dug out of the ground.  I once found an 1810 penny.

Mini Me Geology:  What are the worst things about your job?

Nina:  Collecting overdue bills, giving people bad news about their property or contamination issues.

Mini Me Geology:  Are you using your college Geology degree?

Nina:  Yes.  I use the research skills and logical progression of issues; however, I don't get to use the pure science aspect of my degree.

Mini Me Geology:  Would you recommend your job to future geologists?

Nina:  Yes.  Being a geologist is an excuse to play in the dirt for the rest of your life. 

Mini Me Geology:  And our most important question - what is your favorite rock or mineral?

Nina:  Spodumene.  The way that spodumene is mined from the ground and used in industrial factories is very interesting. 

Thank you to Nina for taking the time to talk to us about her job in geology.  We wish Nina the best of luck with her new office for SCS Engineers!  To find out more about Nina or SCS Engineers go to www.scsengineers.com.

If you have more questions about environmental consulting, just write to us on the www.MiniMeGeology.com website!