Principles places more emphasis on scientific principles, ethics, and safety, and focuses less on engineering design. The text exposes students to a broad range of environmental topics?including risk management, water quality an treatment, air pollution, hazardous waste, solid waste, and ionizing radiation as well as discussion of relevant regulations and practices.

The book also uses mass and energy balance as a tool for understanding environmental processes and solving environmetnal engineering problems.

This new edition includes an optional chapter on Biology as well as a thorough updating of environmental standards and a discussion of how those standards are created.