Project Grade 9 Careers & CTE
Haldreth's PFAS Treatment Upgrade: A Utility Staffing Plan
A five-session grade 9 careers project in which teams staff a fictional district's new PFAS treatment building against licensing rules and a fixed payroll budget.
Objectives
- Students will convert the added tasks of a treatment upgrade into weekly labor hours by role.
- Students will build a staffing plan that meets stated licensing coverage rules within a payroll limit.
- Students will justify a staffing choice in a memo that names the cost each option places on staff and on ratepayers.
Vocabulary
- Granular activated carbon
- Small black grains of specially treated carbon that grab contaminants as water flows through them. Utilities use big tanks of it to remove PFAS, bad tastes, and odors.
- Confined space entry
- Special safety rules workers follow before going into enclosed spaces like tanks, vaults, and manholes. The air is tested and a trained team stands by, because these spaces can be dangerous.
Also: operator license class, creditable experience, payroll burden, coverage
Teacher overview
The Haldreth Water District, a fictional utility used throughout this project, has been told to add treatment for PFAS, and the district now has to find people qualified to run it. Over five sessions, teams convert the new building's tasks into labor hours, build a staffing plan that satisfies the district's license-coverage rule and payroll limit, and defend the plan in a memo to the district board. A teaching note before you begin: students usually assume that a staffing gap can be closed by posting a job and hiring, which is why the licensing timeline in the brief matters. A Class III license takes two years of documented experience to earn, so a district that needs a Class III operator next year has to recruit or promote someone who already holds the license and backfill the position behind that person. EPA set the maximum contaminant level for PFOA and PFOS at 4.0 parts per trillion each in its April 2024 rule, with compliance required by April 2029. In May 2026 the agency proposed letting eligible systems apply for a two-year exemption, to April 2031; the proposal was not final as of September 2026 and would not change the 4.0 ppt limits, so students should treat the deadline as a rule still in motion rather than a settled date.
Project Brief
Driving question: Which positions should the fictional Haldreth Water District fill, and with which licenses, so that its new PFAS treatment building runs legally and stays inside the payroll the board approved?
Scenario: Haldreth is a fictional district serving about 24,000 people from a surface water plant rated at 5.2 MGD. Sampling has found PFOA above the federal limit, so the board has approved a granular activated carbon building that will start producing water 14 months from now. You are the district's workforce planning team. The operations manager has given you the tasks the new building adds, the rules the state board enforces, and the money the district has.
What the new building adds each week:
- Carbon vessel rounds, pressure readings, and backwash logs: 21 hours
- Process sampling and bench testing at the plant: 12 hours
- Compliance sample collection and shipping to a certified outside laboratory: 5 hours
- Preventive maintenance on valves, pumps, and instruments: 16 hours
- Carbon changeout, done as a confined space entry by a crew of at least two trained workers, averaged across the year: 6 hours
Constraints (all figures are set for this fictional scenario):
- When the carbon building starts up, the state will rate the plant Class III, and from then on a licensed Class III operator must be on site during every hour the plant produces water, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- A Class III license requires 24 months of documented operating experience at a Class III plant or higher, so an operator in training hired now cannot earn one before startup.
- Only a technician holding the state's sample collector certification may pull compliance samples.
- Confined space entry requires two certified workers present, never one.
- The board approved $420,000 per year in added payroll. Employer benefits add 32 percent on top of every base wage, and that total must fit inside the $420,000.
- Overtime is paid at 1.5 times the base hourly rate and is capped by district policy at 8 hours per person per week.
Roles the district may hire, with base annual wages set for this fictional scenario:
| Role | Base wage | License or certification held |
|---|---|---|
| Class III operator | $78,000 | Class III |
| Class II operator | $64,000 | Class II |
| Operator in training | $47,000 | None yet |
| Laboratory and sampling technician | $56,000 | Sample collector |
| Maintenance technician | $66,000 | Confined space entry |
Haldreth already employs three Class III operators, two Class II operators, and one maintenance technician. Those six people currently cover the existing plant and have no spare hours.
Final deliverable: a staffing table listing every position your team would add, its wage, its benefits cost, and the tasks it covers, together with a memo of about 400 words addressed to the fictional Haldreth board explaining how the plan meets the coverage rule and the payroll limit, and naming one cost the plan places on current staff.
Milestones
- Session 1, from tasks to hours. Add the weekly hours listed in the brief, then sort each task into the license or certification that may perform it. Output: a one-page table showing total weekly hours and the credential each block of hours requires.
- Session 2, defining the quantities. Decide which quantities your staffing model actually needs, and write each one with its unit. Teams usually need licensed operator hours required per week, hours one full-time position supplies per week, total payroll including benefits, and months of experience available before startup. Output: a defined-quantities list with a one-sentence reason for each.
- Session 3, two staffing options. Draft two different plans that both satisfy the coverage rule. One should lean on overtime for current staff, the other on new hires. Cost each plan, remembering the 32 percent benefits load. Output: two labeled staffing tables with totals.
- Session 4, comparing at the margin. For each plan, state what the district gains and what it gives up by adding one more position rather than one more overtime shift, and name who carries that cost, whether current staff, ratepayers, or the district's ability to cover a sick day. Choose one plan. Output: a comparison sheet ending in a signed team decision.
- Session 5, the memo and the board meeting. Write the memo and present the plan to the class, which acts as the fictional Haldreth board and asks at least two questions per team. Output: the finished staffing table, the memo, and answers given at the meeting.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Rubric
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage rule | The plan leaves hours when no licensed Class III operator is on site | The plan claims coverage but the table does not show how every hour is filled | The table shows a licensed Class III operator on site for all hours the plant produces water | The table shows full coverage and identifies which position absorbs an unplanned absence |
| Payroll limit | Total payroll exceeds the approved amount, or benefits are left out | Benefits are applied inconsistently, or the total is stated without the arithmetic | Total payroll including the 32 percent benefits load is inside the approved amount and is shown line by line | Total payroll is inside the limit, shown line by line, with a stated margin held back for overtime |
| Credential matching | Tasks are assigned to roles that may not legally perform them | Most tasks match the right credential, with one or two mismatches | Every task is assigned to a role holding the required license or certification | Every task matches, and the plan explains how the district keeps a second certified person available for confined space work |
| Memo and reasoning | The memo restates the plan without reasons | The memo gives reasons but does not compare the two options | The memo compares both options and names who bears the cost of the chosen one | The memo compares both options, names who bears the cost, and anticipates a board question with evidence from the table |
Differentiation
Support
Give these teams the Session 1 table already filled in, so the work starts at the staffing decision rather than the arithmetic. Provide a worked example of the benefits calculation using one role from the fictional wage list, showing the base wage, the 32 percent addition, and the total. Allow the memo to be written as five labeled paragraphs with a sentence starter for each.
Extension
Ask these teams to plan for the licensing timeline rather than only the startup date. Given that a Class III license requires 24 months of documented experience, have them show which current employee moves into the new building, who backfills that person, and when an operator in training hired now becomes eligible to sit for the exam. EPA has reported that roughly one-third of the water workforce becomes retirement-eligible within the next decade, so ask teams to state what their plan would look like if one Class III operator retired in the same year the building opens.
ELL supports
Pre-teach license class, creditable experience, coverage, payroll burden, and confined space using a labeled diagram of the fictional Haldreth plant with each role placed where it works. Provide the memo as a frame: the district needs, our plan adds, this meets the rule because, and the cost of this choice falls on. Allow the staffing table to carry short phrases rather than full sentences.
Extensions
Invite a licensed operator or a utility human resources staff member to review two teams' plans and describe how their own agency fills a position that requires a license. If a visitor is not available, have teams compare their plans against a real job posting from any nearby water utility, listing which credentials the posting requires and which of the fictional Haldreth roles it most resembles.