Photo: PortlandAppraisalBlog (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Job description
Engineers design both domestic and industrial treatment facilities, sometimes advanced ones with sequencing batch reactors, membranes, or UV disinfection systems, and lay out potable and non-potable water distribution networks. Day-to-day work includes hydraulic modeling, pipeline design, evaluating existing systems for efficiency gains, and providing technical direction to junior engineers and CAD technicians. Most of the job happens at a desk, with steady deadline pressure but no unusual physical demands.
Pros
- High upside earning potential, up to $163k
- Faster than average projected growth (5%), with a sizable occupation (23,600 jobs) nationally
- Direct, visible public-health impact ensuring safe water and effective sewage systems
Cons
- Above-average hours, expect more than a standard 40-hour work week
- Work must comply with strict government standards, adding regulatory complexity
- Supervisory responsibility for junior engineers and technicians adds management demands
A typical day
The morning design session is a pump-station upgrade: hydraulic calculations sizing pumps for a growing service area, with redundancy designed in because failure here means sewage in basements. Midday brings a treatment-plant expansion review -- checking a contractor's submittals against spec and catching a substituted valve that doesn't meet the corrosion requirement. The afternoon is fieldwork at a construction site, verifying that what's in the ground matches what's on the drawings before it gets buried. The day closes modeling a storm scenario for a flood-control project, where the design storm chosen quietly decides which neighborhoods stay dry.
Tasks at the job
- Provide technical direction or supervision to junior engineers, engineering or computer-aided design (CAD) technicians, or other technical personnel.
- Design domestic or industrial water or wastewater treatment plants, including advanced facilities with sequencing batch reactors (SBR), membranes, lift stations, headworks, surge overflow basins, ultraviolet disinfection systems, aerobic digesters, sludge lagoons, or control buildings.
- Evaluate the operation and maintenance of water or wastewater systems to identify ways to improve their efficiency.
- Design or select equipment for use in wastewater processing to ensure compliance with government standards.
- Design water distribution systems for potable or non-potable water.
- Analyze and recommend chemical, biological, or other wastewater treatment methods to prepare water for industrial or domestic use.
Workplace & working conditions
Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting, and most of the day is spent sitting at a desk.
There's a regular, moderate amount of time pressure.
Education necessary or common
Bachelor's degree
Common college majors
Licenses & certifications
- FE then PE license
Career path
Related fields
Courses to take
- AP Calculus AB/BC -- the engineering-degree entry requirement
- AP Physics 1/C -- fluid mechanics starts here
- AP Chemistry -- treatment processes are applied chemistry
- AP Environmental Science -- the mission context
- Drafting/CAD -- plans are the product
Clubs, activities & competitions
- Science Olympiad engineering events
- Environmental club water projects
- FIRST Robotics -- design-build-test discipline
- Math team
First steps you can take now
- Tour a wastewater treatment plant -- the process is genuinely impressive in person
- Build a working sand-and-gravel water filter and test before/after
- Take a free online intro to environmental engineering
- Interview a civil engineer at your city's public works department
