The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.

JOB SCORE

4.0/10

What's this?

Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?

The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.

JOB SCORE

4.0/10

What's this?

Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

38% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important

Why this matters

Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.

Jobs that also use this strength

Working directly with the public

Quite important

Why this matters

The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.

Jobs that also use this strength

Coaching and developing others

Quite important

Why this matters

Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.

Jobs that also use this strength

Coordinating others’ work

Quite important

Why this matters

Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.

Jobs that also use this strength

Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important

Why this matters

Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.

Jobs that also use this strength

What users think

Based on 77 votes

37% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 38% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Highly likely

Moderate

Uncertain

Low

No chance

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators was $58,260 ($28 per hour).

The median annual wage for Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators was 17.7% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators' job openings is expected to decline 6.5% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 126,750 people employed as 'Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators' within the United States.

This represents around 0.08% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 1 thousand people are employed as 'Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators'.

What people are saying (8)

Water Operator (Low)

10 Feb 2022 16:43

This industry has many issues when it comes to funding, stemming from a rapidly shrinking revenue stream due to failing economics in large urban centers and rapidly draining federal and state funds for maintenance of water infrastructure.

The risk involved with automating these specific jobs is too high, and the cost too great to cover all cases and mitigate all the risks, meaning these jobs should be safe for the future. Paradoxically, despite their absurd importance, funding seems to always get leaner every year.

Although many facets could be automated, integrating these automated systems into the majority of dilapidated infrastructure would be too cumbersome to be a real issue.

Waddlebrow (Moderate)

27 Jul 2021 00:43

Most dosages, valve changing and treatments are already automated and we’re just babysitting the programs to ensure they run correctly

paul

01 Apr 2021 14:20

This job is already fully automated, most of the job is monitoring the systems to see if they're working properly, taking samples here and there, and ensuring the systems are working properly. Humans have a biased view to have ourselves as a last-line-of-defence, because in a sense we're also dealing with the health of an entire population. I can see complications resulting from system upgrades or increasing efficiency by reducing workers and having people take on more responsibilities with more complex systems, but it will likely never be 100% automated because of our bias..

Christopher (Low)

17 Feb 2021 04:32

Many functions in this industry could be automated -- and should be, in my opinion. But very few systems apply best available technology, and so many do not even fund basic infrastructure maintenance. I believe robots will replace or supplement operators very little within the next 2 decades.

Doug Flores (Low)

30 Jul 2019 14:51

This job takes into account all aspects of being human. You have to listen to the equipment, see changes in the processes, take into account the smell of the wastewater and be able to make changes to the equipment to maintain safe effluent. The operator has to take samples and perform the appropriate tests to ensure quality discharge of the plant.

Annon

29 Jun 2020 14:23

Thanks for the info. Yeah, it sounds like it will not be 100% automated, but technology will just make the job a little easier. Technology will be there to help out.

Sarah (Low)

02 Jul 2019 20:54

I think wastewater treatment could be done partially be done by robots. I wish we have apps to check if the water is safe.

Zach (Low)

27 Jul 2021 08:05

100%. I really would like more automated tests and more frequent testing done not just in the plant but in the collection system. I've been asking for portable SCADA tablets for well over 2-3 years now. Maybe one day..

Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators

Explore safer careers (4)

At a glance

Occupation snapshot

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

Human strengths important in this job

Decision-making and problem solving

Working directly with the public

Coaching and developing others

Coordinating others’ work

Developing objectives and strategies

What users think

What do you think the risk of automation is?

Sentiment

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Wages over time

Growth

Total employment, and estimated job openings

Volume

People also viewed

What people are saying (8)

Job description