After taking all of your advice I went for it and applied to a plant operator position even though I don’t come from a wastewater back ground. I followed all the advice given on my previous post and I absolutely killed in the interview! Got my offer letter today and did all the hiring process (background, drug test) and now just waiting for my hire date!! Thank you all for not only the advice but for pushing me to go for it when I was for sure I would never even be considered!! 🙏🏽🙏🏽

Hi all. I purchased an RV park in Florida that had a decrepit wastewater treatment plant. I've chipped away and most of the issues with it and have learned a lot over the last two years. The big issue remaining is hydraulic overload from our lift station adding the wastewater to my aeration basins way too suddenly and forcing volume that should be treated longer over my spillway prematurely and into my ponds. The samplings results caused by this are running me into regulatory scrutiny.

I am told that I need a surge tank. In my mind, all this needs to be is a big plastic drum, like one you would see in a wellwater system where the untreated water is misted and mixed with chlorine. Place this high up and have a thin outlet to delay the surge into the basins over time and done. In my research, though, I am seeing totally enclosed tanks with baffles and pressure ratings way, way higher than ambient. What is the point of this? Why can't I just have basically a water tower with a small outlet adding the hydraulic equivalent of electrical capacitance to the system?

Am I missing something? Thanks in advance for your pointers. Have a great weekend.

Interviewing for municipal water service technician 1 Seems like mainly water meter repairs and such - for both water and wastewater distribution + collections.

I have no experience in this. Any tips or questions i should expect in the interview??

Any help appreciated thank you.

Disclaimer: Just showing off the operation. I’m new to waste water management and showing off to those who maybe interested

Disclaimer: Just showing off the operation. I’m new to waste water management and showing off to those who maybe interested

Small setup for an automotive manufacturing plant. 3 10,000 gallon tanks

Looking at a career pivot and was beginning to be interested in being a waste water operater, im just wondering what the 10-15 year outlook is for the pay/work life balance and as far things like automation goes and input if you suggest otherwise, thanks!

First, just wanted to say thanks to the new people who've been posting questions and the experienced people answering those questions. As someone with hardly any experience or science/math background it's pretty intimidating so it's a big relief to not feel alone.

I finally made the decision to go with Drinking Water (I think Distribution first and then Treatment?) so I was going to purchase the $99 Ken Tesh D-1 course but he suggests using it along with the Sac state book. So I guess I'm getting that too by purchasing Water Treatment Plant Operation, Vol 1. But why does it say enrollment is $75 and the manual is $100? I can guess the manual part is the physical book that gets mailed out but what am I enrolling in by paying an extra $75? Do I not get CEUs or an access code unless I enroll? Money's tight so I'd rather keep the $75 unless it's necessary. Thanks!

So I've been in water and wastewater for about 6 and a half years. Been a pretreatment/stormwater supervisor for the past 2 years. I absolutely love all things water quality related.

Well I have just gotten my Master's in public administration and my ultimate goal is to one day be either a utilities director or a public works director.

I just got an offer to be a public works superintendent over literally everything BUT water and wastewater. I would be over streets, traffic, fleet, maintenance, and stormwater. It would be a definite raise and I would be managing around 20 people and a multi million dollar budget.

Currently I only supervise 3 people and have around $400k budget. So this would definitely expand my management and budget experience and it would give me experience in the areas I have no experience in. But I would miss water and wastewater a lot.

What would you do?

Hello all. I am very new to wastewater. I have about 10 months in a sanitary system and another 18 months in industrial sludge treatment (pre treatment) everything you see here is what knowledge I could recall quickly without looking at any of my study material or books or any cheat sheets. I have taken the class 1 wastewater abc test and failed by a single point. I wanna say the treatment process monitoring, evaluation and adjustment was my least successful category. Is there any advice or good study material anybody knows about that will help me get across the finish line?? Any and all would be appreciated! By the way the picture I guess I wanted to know how I was doing. I tried to challenge myself with what I know so far without much effort.

I am in collections and distribution. My goal is to be dual certified as water treatment/wastewater operator. Have any of you gotten your collection or distribution license (or both) before you became an operator? And if so, did it give you any “career boost” or advantage over someone who only has an operator license?

This Mornings Sunrise over our EQ Basin. North Oregon Coast.

Florida operators, do any of you know what WW plants in the state don't have required night shift work? I've been in the game 5 years now and my plant does rotations for night shift. I know Lake City closes the plant at night any other plants in central or north Florida only run during the day?

We seem to be having an issue with FOG in our anaerobic basin, weve used small mall amounts of bleach to cut some of it out, as well as degreaser but it seems to come back thick and strong. Do any of y'all have recommendations?

Have any hacks to get practice time on less-often used techniques? I've been to competent person for trench/excavation, but my department rarely excavates. How do you conquer this obstacle? Of course I could take more classes; and stuff like soil classification I could do in my own yard. For the digging, I've thought maybe I could

Ask to observe water distribution dept projects? Ask a local engineer or contractor if I can observe a project?

I'm not a wastewater operator but I work on a lot of laboratory equipment in the wastewater and water treatment space along with open channel flow meters and wastewater samplers. I've come across a problem that no one's ever asked me about. I have a customer who has a sampler and the vinyl tubing is run through a conduit underground from their flume to the sampler. With a recent cold stamp they've had sample freeze in the tube. Are any of you aware of a good way to insulate that tubing to prevent future freezing?

Want to enter influent, MLSS, TSS, DO, PH, BOD etc....and want it to calculate SRT, wasting, Return rates etc...

Must be some of the only open water around for the ducks

I’ve noticed scum floating on the surface of the sedimentation pond. Does anyone have advice on effective ways to resolve this issue? P.S. I’m new to managing wastewater treatment systems, so any detailed explanation or beginner-friendly advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone. I have an amazing opportunity to apply for a wastewater apprenticeship at the company I work for despite only being there for a month. My managers encouraged me to apply because they think I would be a good fit based on their interview with me, and what they've seen of me at work so far. I coulnd't be happier because I am interested in the field, and the pay would be much better than that of my current position.

They did mention that I would have to take an aptitude test for both mechanical and wastewater knowledge. I am very nervous about this because I completely blew an opportunity at a previous company by getting 1 more question wrong than was acceptable on a mechanical aptitude test. I would like to study very hard to make sure it doesn't happen again. I come to you to ask if anyone could recommend some resources I could use to prepare myself. ie sample tests, study guides, etc. I would be incredibly grateful for any help you guys could provide.

The company I work manufactures parts using casting, stamping, milling, tumbling, and heat treating if that makes any difference. We work with steel, zinc allows, and brass. The parts are for automotice applications.

TL,DR: I applied for a wastewater apprenticeship and have an upcoming aptitude test for both wastwater and mechanical knowledge and would love any resources you could recommend to study and take practice tests in both of these subjects.

Thank you!

Any areas other than math to focus on? I notice on these ABC tests that many questions focus on the same areas. Thanks

Hello community members,

I am planning to write OIT exams for all modules. I find the process a bit confusing if anyone can help would be appreciated.

1). Do we need to send other documents along with registration form for registering exam?

2). How much questions will be there in exam for each unit?

3). Is there any resources available to prepare for exam?

Hello, guys at work were curious to see if anyone else has a polymer blending unit similar to this one. The unit is 15 years old…We are curious to know if the whole entire unit needs to be cleaned & taken apart? Does polymer build up inside the tube? We’ve never taken it apart fully. We only take out the (Red) circled part to clean twice a month. We are trying to see if it would change the outcome of floc in our Drum Thickener. Thanks! 🙏🏽