Profile

Photo:

Alan Jones

    • About Me:

      I am a Senior Environment Officer working in East Anglia.  I carry out regulatory inspections for water quality, intensive farms and water resources.  I attend environmental incidents.

    • Read more

      I have worked for the Environment Agency for 14 years, before that I was a Geography and ICT teacher in secondary schools.  I was also a part-time soldier for  22 years.   I have three children two of them went to university to study Geography and my middle daughter works as a buying manager for a very large supermarket.

      I come from a farming background with my  mum and dad being brought up on farms  but we didn’t live on a farm but we went back to help, so farming is in my blood and having studied geography ‘ I understand more about agriculture and I have now specialised in that with the Environment Agency.

    • My pronouns are:

      he/him

    • How I use Geography in my work:

       

      I take samples of  water and  soils sometimes I analyse these samples in the field or I send the samples to a laboratory. I create maps using Geographical Information Systems and I use satellite images to help plan field visits.  All of my work is mainly outside  either on farms or working on rivers.

    • My Work:

      Every day working with the Environment Agency is different.  One day I may be giving a talk to members of public about an environmental topic or to farmers about some new regulations or I may be taking water samples or attending an environmental pollution incident with the local Fire and Rescue Service.  I use my mapping skills to help others understand  an issue and I may use satellite images to locate fields which may be taking  too  much water when the area may be in drought.  I do a lot of analysing of water samples  which I may take or which may have  come back from our laboratory.

    • Read more

      I have to explain  a lot about the environment to  members of the public who report an environmental incident to the Environment Agency.  I also prepare answers for Members of  Parliament who want  answers that  they have raised such as pollution to rivers or land.   More people are now concerned about pollution to rivers and  I spend a lot of time explaining what is pollution and  how we can prevent pollution.

      Sometimes I have to  produce a legal casefile against a  polluter  who has damaged the environment  and then I have to be very precise in explaining the pollution.

      I have to use a lot of technology to do my work  either in sampling  in the rivers  or on the land. Using   satellite  images and been able to overlay these images onto maps  has become very important.

    • My Typical Day:

      I start work  at 8am  and look over any  laboratory results or emails that have come in overnight.  I work from home these days and travel to my office on one day a week for team meetings.  I usually have some on-line meeting most days when I learn new techniques or new information about my work. I plan at least 2 days of field work per week.  However, there are times when I have to go out to a pollution incident  with all my equipment in the car ready for that incident.  I have three big boxes one for all my sampling equipment, another box for my hi-viz protective clothing and life jacket and one box for my sample bottles and containers.  Some incidents will take all day and then I have to take my samples to a depot for collection, by a courier, who will take the bottles to our laboratory.

      Once a month I do a duty week  which is  means I  have to attend any incidents called in  out of normal working hours i.e. 5pm until 9am next day and all day on Saturday and Sunday.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would buy sampling equipment that could be used for students to practice  analysing for a ‘pollution event’

    CV

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        a sociable geographer

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        soldier and a teacher

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        yes!

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        soldier

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        REM

        What's your favourite food?

        Roast Dinner

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        have time to go fishing, go to New Zealand to visit volcanoes, live in Wales

        Tell us a joke.

        what is the most dangerous yellow pollution, shark infested custard

Questions answered by Alan

No questions to show