WORKFORCE AND SUCCESSION PLANNING
The Workforce Crisis in Water and Wastewater: What Happens When Experience Retires?
A treatment plant can replace a failed component. Replacing decades of operating judgment is harder. When experienced operators, technicians and supervisors retire without a deliberate handoff, utilities lose more than headcount. They can lose the practical knowledge that connects alarms, equipment, process conditions and safe responses.
This is an operating risk, not only a hiring problem
The EPA reports that roughly one-third of the water sector workforce is eligible to retire within ten years. Utilities are also being asked to recruit, train and retain people while technology and skill requirements continue to change.
The immediate vacancy matters, but the deeper risk is knowledge concentration. If one person knows how a station behaves during a storm, where the current controller backup is stored, or why an old interlock was added, that knowledge is already a single point of failure.
What can happen when experience walks out the door?
The examples below are illustrative scenarios, not reports of specific incidents. They show how ordinary staffing gaps can become operational problems.
The alarm that does not tell the whole story
A wet-well level alarm appears during a storm. The recently retired lead operator would have checked a known sensing issue before changing pump logic. The new team sees only the alarm text and begins troubleshooting the controller. Response slows while the actual process condition continues to develop.
Knowledge to capture: alarm context, first checks, known failure patterns and escalation steps.
The restart sequence no one wrote down
After a power interruption, equipment returns in an unexpected order. A former technician knew which permissive had to be confirmed locally, but the detail never reached the procedure. Operators must reconstruct the sequence under pressure, increasing delay and the chance of an avoidable process upset.
Knowledge to capture: shutdown, transfer, restart and return-to-normal procedures.
The backup that cannot be used
A controller fails and a program backup exists, but no one on shift knows which file is current, what software version is required, or whether the replacement hardware is compatible. A file on a server is not a recovery plan unless another qualified person can find, verify and restore it.
Knowledge to capture: version records, restore steps, software access and tested spare strategy.
The workaround that became invisible
An experienced operator has compensated for a difficult valve, drifting instrument or unreliable communication link for years. The workaround leaves with that person. The next operator encounters behavior that does not match the drawings and may make a reasonable decision based on incomplete information.
Knowledge to capture: temporary practices, deferred repairs, field changes and drawing corrections.
Recruit before the vacancy becomes urgent
Recruitment works better when a utility can explain the work plainly, show candidates a credible path into the field and begin training before the only expert leaves. Water careers offer community purpose, technical variety and routes for people with mechanical, electrical, laboratory, operations, information technology and customer-service skills.
Make the work visible
Use plant tours, school presentations, job-shadow days and short employee stories to show what water professionals actually do. Connect the role to public health, environmental protection and reliable community service.
Write for candidates outside the industry
Separate skills required on day one from skills that can be learned. Replace unexplained utility terminology with clear descriptions of the work, schedule, certification path and training support. Screen for transferable ability, not only previous water-sector job titles.
Build paid entry routes
Consider apprenticeships, internships and trainee classifications that combine supervised work with structured learning. Partnerships with high schools, technical colleges, veteran organizations and workforce boards can broaden the candidate pool.
Turn mentoring into scheduled work
Do not depend on informal handoffs during spare moments. Assign mentors, name specific systems to cover, schedule field walkdowns and require the learner to demonstrate the task. Capture questions that reveal gaps in procedures and drawings.
Show a career path
Explain how an employee can progress through certification, operations, maintenance, instrumentation, controls, supervision or project roles. Visible development helps recruiting and gives current employees a reason to keep building skills.
Fix avoidable friction
Review slow hiring steps, unclear schedules, outdated job descriptions, inconsistent onboarding and tools that make routine work harder. Recruiting cannot be separated from retention. A vacancy filled today does not solve the problem if the new employee cannot succeed.
A practical 90-day starting point
- Map retirement and coverage risk. Identify roles, systems and shifts with only one qualified resource.
- List critical knowledge. Include abnormal operation, controls, instruments, vendors, backups, drawings and regulatory routines.
- Choose the first three handoffs. Pair an experienced employee with a named learner and a completion date.
- Document and demonstrate. Update the procedure, walk through it in the field, then have the learner perform or explain the task under appropriate supervision.
- Open one recruiting channel. Start a relationship with a school, workforce organization, veteran group or apprenticeship partner, and give them a clear description of the opportunity.
- Review the work environment. Ask recent hires what helped, what confused them and what nearly caused them to leave.
How can BEA help?
BEA is not a recruiting agency, but we can help utilities make technical knowledge easier to transfer and new staff easier to support. Our team can review PLC and SCADA systems, organize current program backups, improve control narratives and alarm documentation, identify obsolete or single-point-of-knowledge equipment, and support practical controls training around the systems employees use.
For utilities planning succession, a focused controls walkdown can be a useful first step. Choose one plant or station, identify what only the retiring expert knows, and turn that knowledge into documentation, training and a prioritized modernization plan.
For workforce-development ideas and federal resources, visit the U.S. EPA Water Infrastructure Sector Workforce page.