Many moons ago, I managed an environmental consulting firm that served both the public and private sector. I know of what you speak.
Many "environmental scientists" originally aspired to be chemists and chemical engineers, but couldn't pass calculus or organic chemistry.
I'll trade anecdotes:
One Friday afternoon, seeking to kill time, I go into our company's conference room to find our most senior technical VP (a professor of environmental science at a major research university) pouring over some calculations.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to calculate how much heat it will take to evaporate (a quantity of water) from (our client's) wastewater treatment system."
[Seeking to be helpful] "Um ... those calculations are incorrect."
"Why?"
"You forgot about the latent heat of vaporization."
"What's that?" [I'm not kidding.]
[I explain.]
"Well, it can't be much. I'll just ignore it."
Or, how about a proposal of a Ph.D. "environmental scientist" to "neutralize" a rail car of Chromerge (chromic acid & sulfuric acid used to clean glass-lined reactors and the like by oxidizing ... um ... everything) with 46% aqueous NaOH?
"Hmm ... won't that reaction be a little exothermic?" [The understatement of the last century.]
"Yeah, maybe. We'll do it on a cold day."
You just can't make this stuff up,