Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators

Moderate Risk
48%

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Vote Comments (8)
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
59%
(Moderate Risk)
POLLING
38%
(Low Risk, Based on 75 votes)
Average: 48%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
-6.0%
by year 2033
WAGES
$54,890
or $26.39 per hour
Volume
120,710
as of 2023
SUMMARY
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
4.2/10
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.

People also viewed

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Calculated automation risk

59% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

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

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Assisting and Caring for Others

  • Manual Dexterity

User poll

38% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. However, the automation risk level we have generated suggests a higher chance of automation: 59% 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?

Sentiment

The following graph is shown where there are enough votes to produce meaningful data. It displays user poll results over time, providing a clear indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

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 6.0% by 2033

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.

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators' was $54,890, or $26 per hour

'Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operators' were paid 14.2% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 120,710 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'.

Job description

Operate or control an entire process or system of machines, often through the use of control boards, to transfer or treat water or wastewater.

SOC Code: 51-8031.00

Comments (8)

Leave a comment
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..
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