A Day at the Estcourt Water Plant: The Operator's Job

Every town needs someone to keep its water safe. In the town of Estcourt, that person is Ms. Rivera. She is a water treatment operator. Estcourt is a made-up town, but her job is a real one.

Ms. Rivera starts work early. She checks gauges and screens across the plant. She tests the water many times a day. She measures how cloudy it is. She checks the level of chlorine that keeps germs out. When a reading is off, she adjusts a pump or a valve. Her goal is simple. The water that leaves the plant must be safe to drink.

There are two main kinds of water jobs. Some operators clean river or well water so it is safe to drink. Others clean used water from homes before it flows back to a river. This used water is called wastewater. Both kinds of work keep people and nature healthy. Ms. Rivera runs a drinking-water plant, but she trained with wastewater operators too.

Some days a pump breaks or a pipe leaks. Then Ms. Rivera and her crew fix it fast. A plant runs every hour of every day. Operators take turns so someone is always there.

How did Ms. Rivera get this job? She finished high school first. Then she trained on the job with older operators. To run the plant on her own, she had to pass a state exam and earn a license. Licenses come in classes, from Class I to Class IV. A higher class lets an operator run a larger plant. Ms. Rivera studies each year to move up a class.

Water work is not just one path. Some people become operators right after high school, like Ms. Rivera. Others earn a short certificate first. Some go to a four-year college and study civil or environmental engineering. A few study subjects like hydrology or public health in graduate school. No single path is the right one. Each path leads to real and needed work.

The pay can be steady. Across the country, water and wastewater operators earned a middle wage of about $60,020 a year in May 2025. The lowest tenth earned less than $39,110. The highest tenth earned over $91,060. Pay often rises as an operator earns a higher license class.

There is also a strong need for new workers. Many operators are close to retirement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that about one-third of the water workforce could retire within ten years. Young workers are also scarce. In 2016, only about 10 out of every 100 water workers were 24 or younger, while 12.5 out of every 100 workers in all U.S. jobs were that young. Because so many workers will leave, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects about 10,000 openings for water and wastewater operators each year. That is true even though the total number of operator jobs is expected to shrink by about 6 percent. All of those openings come from filling the places of people who retire or change careers, not from brand-new plants.

Ms. Rivera likes that her work matters. When a family fills a glass at the sink, they trust the water. She helped earn that trust. For her, that is the best part of the job.

1. Name two things Ms. Rivera does at the plant each day.
2. According to the passage, what does a person usually need to become a water treatment operator?
3. The passage lists several paths into water work. Name two of them.
4. About how many operator job openings are expected each year, and where do those openings come from?
5. The passage says many operators are close to retirement. What does that suggest about job chances for a young person entering the field?
6. Why do you think the writer gives a range of pay instead of a single number? Use details from the passage.
7. Using the passage, explain what an operator's "license" is and why an operator needs one.