Davis-Monthan woman recognized for helping environment

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Brandy Dupper-Macy
  • 355th Wing Public Affairs
DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, ARIZ. (AFPN) --  An environmental engineer here won $2,500 from “Good Housekeeping” magazine as a runner-up for the magazine’s Women in Government award.

Karen Oden is assigned to the 355th Civil Engineer Squadron.

The women selected for the award worked endless hours overcoming huge hurdles to make big changes, magazine officials said.

Eight women were selected from more than 200 nomination packages for this year’s awards.

“I was on a bike ride with my son, Alex, (when I) was contacted by ‘Good Housekeeping’ magazine on my cell phone,” Ms. Oden said. “I am fortunate to have a job that I really enjoy, and find meaningful and challenging. To be recognized for my effort is an honor.”

Ms. Oden’s experience in environmental engineering spans more than 10 years of improving the environment.

In 1991, having just completed her master’s degree in environmental engineering, supplementing degrees in communications and geosciences, Ms. Oden took on the task of managing the installation restoration program here, which deals with large-scope pollution projects.

“I am responsible for identifying, investigating and restoring sites with a wide range of contaminants at an installation with a long and rich military history dating back to the 1930s,” Ms. Oden said. “Most of the installation’s environmental problems were caused by the base’s early practices which were not up to the high standards of today’s environmental compliance techniques. Most wastes were buried or allowed to ‘disappear’ into the ground.

“Because of this, I am responsible for a variety of sites with contaminants as diverse as many types of jet fuel from a military airfield active for over 70 years, old landfills and burial sites dating back to World War II, range-oriented issues associated with buried bombs and unexploded ordnance,” she added. “I am also a part of more recent incidents such as wreckage and environmental impacts from aircraft crashes on state and tribal lands.”

Ms. Oden said another one of her high-profile successes is the treatment and disposal of 23,000 tons of dross, a metal ash containing high levels of lead and other heavy metals resulting from smelting aircraft to recover aluminum in the 1940s and 1950s.