Environmental Specialist Earns Accreditation

Jeff Stovall

Williams’ local air specialist, Jeff Stovall, has passed what is known as the P.E. exam, making him a licensed professional engineer in the state of Texas.

In his role, Jeff helps track air-related data at more than 100 company sites in the Barnett Shale, file reports with state and federal authorities, and work to ensure continuing compliance with air regulations.

Put another way, he’s one of the people at Williams who interacts with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency and towns such as Flower Mound.

Jeff joined Williams in August 2009 after working with a Dallas-based consulting firm for almost eight years, where he specialized in air permitting and modeling for projects in a wide variety of industries, including power, steel and manufacturing. 

Born in Dallas and raised in Sulphur Springs, Jeff is a 2001 graduate of the University of Texas in Arlington. He has a degree in civil engineering from the school.

Obtaining a P.E. license is a two-part certification process. The first step is to pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, which covers things such as math, chemistry, physics and engineering sciences.

People who aspire to become a P.E. usually take the fundamentals test near the end of their degree term, as Jeff did. At that point, you become what is known as an E.I.T., or an engineer in training.

Like most states, in Texas once you’re an E.I.T., you have to accumulate at least four years of professional experience in a specific field, receive recommendation letters from three other professional engineers and pass an ethics test before you can sit for the second part of the process – the Principles and Practice in Engineering (or P.E.) exam.

Jeff did that in October, choosing to take the test in the environmental discipline. There are other disciplines people can choose based on their profession, such as architectural, civil, electrical, mechanical or petroleum engineering. 

The P.E. exam required Jeff to solve 50 air, water, waste, safety and fire protection problems. Beyond his on-the-job experiences, Jeff says he also invested about 350 hours preparing for the exam.

On a personal level, Jeff is married and has a two-year-old daughter. His hobbies include soccer and fantasy football.