How to become Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator in 2024

Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator Operate or control an entire process or system of machines, often through the use of control boards, to transfer or treat water or wastewater.

Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator is Also Know as

In different settings, Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator is titled as

  • Plant Operator
  • Process Operator (Process Op)
  • Relief Operator
  • SCADA Operator (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Operator)
  • Waste Water Treatment Plant Operator (WWTP Operator)
  • Wastewater Operator (WW Operator)
  • Water Control Dispatcher
  • Water Plant Operator
  • Water Treatment Operator
  • Water Treatment Plant Operator

Education and Training of Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator

Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator

Training Required for Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator in different industries are

What Do Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator do?

  • Add chemicals, such as ammonia, chlorine, or lime, to disinfect and deodorize water and other liquids.
  • Operate and adjust controls on equipment to purify and clarify water, process or dispose of sewage, and generate power.
  • Inspect equipment or monitor operating conditions, meters, and gauges to determine load requirements and detect malfunctions.
  • Collect and test water and sewage samples, using test equipment and color analysis standards.
  • Record operational data, personnel attendance, or meter and gauge readings on specified forms.
  • Maintain, repair, and lubricate equipment, using hand tools and power tools.
  • Direct and coordinate plant workers engaged in routine operations and maintenance activities.
  • Clean and maintain tanks, filter beds, and other work areas, using hand tools and power tools.

Qualities of Good Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator

  • Absorption equipment
  • Aeration compressors
  • Aerators
  • Aerobic digesters
  • Agitators
  • Air monitoring equipment
  • Air strippers
  • Ammoniators
  • Ammonium analyzers
  • Anaerobic treatment equipment
  • Atomic absorption AA spectrophotometers
  • Autosamplers
  • Backwash filters
  • Biochemical oxygen demand analyzers
  • Blowers
  • Carbon analyzers
  • Centrifugal pumps
  • Chemical feed pumps
  • Chemical feeding equipment
  • Chemical oxygen demand testing equipment
  • Chlorine analyzers
  • Clarifiers
  • Colorimeters
  • Comminutors
  • Composite samplers
  • Conductivity meters
  • Conveyor control equipment
  • Dechlorination equipment
  • Denitrification equipment
  • Desktop computers
  • Diffusors
  • Disinfection chlorinators
  • Emissions monitoring systems
  • Filter belt presses
  • Fixed-film reactors
  • Flocculators
  • Flotation equipment
  • Furnaces
  • Grit separators
  • Heat exchangers
  • Hydraulic pumps
  • Hydrocarbon analyzers
  • Incinerators
  • Incline plate clarifiers
  • Incline screw pumps
  • Ion exchangers
  • Lift stations
  • Microstrainers
  • Nitrate analyzers
  • Notebook computers
  • Odor control equipment
  • Oil-in-water monitors
  • pH analyzers
  • Pipe cleaning equipment
  • Pipe inspection video equipment
  • Plate and frame presses
  • Positive displacement pumps
  • Rapid sand filters
  • Remote terminal unit pump control equipment
  • Rotating biological contactors
  • Scrubbers
  • Scum ejectors
  • Sequential batch reactors
  • Settleometers
  • Slow sand filters
  • Sludge digesters
  • Sludge injectors
  • Sulphonators
  • Suspended solid measurement equipment
  • Total oil and grease analyzers
  • Total organic carbon TOC analyzers
  • Total petroleum hydrocarbon TPH analyzers
  • Toxic gas analyzers
  • Trickling filter beds
  • Turbidimeters
  • Ultrasonic flowmeters
  • Ultraviolet UV disinfection systems
  • Vacuum filters
  • Valve actuators
  • Wastewater samplers
  • Water treatment evaporators

Technology Skills required for Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator

  • Compliance software
  • Data logging software
  • Database software
  • Geographic information system GIS systems
  • Human machine interface HMI software
  • Material safety data sheet MSDS software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Operating system software
  • Operational Data Store ODS software
  • Records management software
  • Supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA software
  • Timekeeping software
  • Wastewater expert control systems
  • Word processing software