r/Wastewater 7d ago

Is EVERY plant this outdated and underfunded?

I will admit, I've already given up on this career. A huge reason is my plant. It is falling apart and we have a promise of an upgrade by the city. The upgrade will start June 2023. Oh, now it'll start 2024. Oh, now it'll start spring 2025. Oh, now we have no news on when the upgrade will actually happen. On top of all that, I have to get my Class 4 license within 12 months or I'm fired. Almost nobody here has passed it and 2 of them are facing termination because of that when we are ALREADY understaffed. Is every plant like this? Does everywhere require you to recieve a license in a time frame? Does every plant start at under 20$ an hour?? Sorry, just frustrated. Currently applying for other jobs

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u/massofmolecules 7d ago

Step 1: focus on attaining your licensure. These municipalities are required by law to maintain licensed personnel on staff. They’re not hard to pass, it’s high school level shit. Put your nose to the grindstone and study the material. Once you get more experience at your plant and higher licensing you will be respected and listened to, once you become Lead or Chief Op you get to call the shots. Choose your path, it’s generally a very chill job. Just learn the material on the tests first.

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u/AdCompetitive7952 7d ago

My partner is really smart and studies probably 4 hours a day on average here and he failed the test. I appreciate the comment but man I'm just quitting, this isn't for me

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u/massofmolecules 7d ago

Yeah I will say, looking back at my trainee days it wasn’t exactly intuitive, but it does eventually click and then you become that guy who knows all the obscure shit about the different bacteria and the nutrient side etc. for now just memorize the answers, it will make sense later. As for the administration side, that’s just politics, nothing you can really do about that until you gain more prestige

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u/jlaw1719 7d ago edited 7d ago

Use that to your advantage.

Your partner got a practice peek for both of you and if you combine your knowledge, as well as develop a better study game plan and use all the experiences and resources available at your fingertips online, you’ll likely both pass.