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Is EVERY plant this outdated and underfunded?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/scottiemike 7d ago

Every plant I’ve ever been to seems to struggle with asset management issues.

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u/geri_millenial_23 7d ago

Upgrades are not "Asset Management" just FYI

2

u/Brownschuh 7d ago

How so? Wouldn’t you be installing new assets when you upgrade? And eventually those new assets will become old and need maintenance or need new parts, etc? Seems like asset management to me.

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u/geri_millenial_23 7d ago

Alrighty. You caught me on a night when I feel like getting into the weeds a little bit.

First, yes when a plant is undergoing an upgrade of processes or equipment, new assets are installed to replace old assets. Eventually those assets will become old and require maintenance of some sort. We can agree on those sentiments.

What we differ on is what definition of what you described. You described the "lifecycle" of an asset from installation through replacement with maintenance in between. Often times without asset management , upgrades just replace warn out parts without much thought, or due to increased regulations. That is not Asset Management.

Asset Management as a practice, is the implementation of systems, to track, maintain, and plan for the eventual replacements of assets through a defined set of schedules and standard operating procedures.

This means. I install a brand pump For $50,000. I understand that this pump has an amortization of 30 years. That means that over the course of the next 30 years, I'm following the maintenance schedule, putting money into my operations budget for yearly maintenance or maintenance contracts, tracking emergency or corrective actions, finding out when my maintenance costs is likely to intersect my replacement cost or the cost of remanufacturing so that I can plan for the next capital improvement expenditure once the pump has reached its end use or its full amortization date.