Hello Jibatma:
I normally don't participate in the sajha blog and I am limited to enjoy reading the otherwise interesting stuffs in here. After having read your posting, I would strongly suggest you to apply for jobs in California. There are plenty of jobs in environmental remediation  consultancies  throughout  Southern California ( petroleum refineries)  and some of them are even screaming for people. I am posting a link of top 200 environmental companies and almost all of them have their branch office in Southern California and I am pretty sure that quite a few have openings for environmental scientists.
http://enr.construction.com/people/topLists/topEnvDesign/topEnv_1-50.asp

Good luck.