---
title: "Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator"
description: "Operate or control an entire process or system of machines, often through the use of control boards, to transfer or treat water or wastewater."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/water-and-wastewater-treatment-plant-and-system-operator"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant and System Operator

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-8031 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-8031.00

Operate or control an entire process or system of machines, often through the use of control boards, to transfer or treat water or wastewater.

Also advertised as: Plant Operator; Process Operator (Process Op); Relief Operator; Waste Water Treatment Plant Operator (WWTP Operator); Wastewater Operator (WW Operator); Wastewater Technician (Wastewater Tech); Water Control Dispatcher; Water Plant Operator.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $60,020 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $28.86/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $39,110 to $91,060, with the middle half between $48,040 and $74,780
- **Total US employment:** 128,490
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -6.5% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 10,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 52/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 128,490 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $39,110 |
| 25th | $48,040 |
| 50th (median) | $60,020 |
| 75th | $74,780 |
| 90th | $91,060 |
| Mean (average) | $62,540 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $81,770 | $73,853 | 11,630 |
| NV | $81,440 | $81,457 | Not published by BLS |
| WA | $80,800 | $75,505 | 2,030 |
| CT | $78,820 | $76,074 | 980 |
| NJ | $78,760 | $72,386 | 2,500 |
| MN | $74,670 | $75,714 | 2,290 |
| CO | $74,200 | $72,002 | 2,620 |
| OR | $69,720 | $67,453 | 1,240 |
| MA | $68,550 | $64,818 | 2,510 |
| IL | $67,810 | $67,838 | 3,500 |
| HI | $65,560 | $59,627 | 610 |
| DE | $64,940 | $65,065 | 340 |
| NY | $63,990 | $59,293 | 5,300 |
| VT | $63,640 | $64,967 | 320 |
| WI | $63,550 | $67,538 | 2,230 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/water-and-wastewater-treatment-plant-and-system-operator/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/water-and-wastewater-treatment-plant-and-system-operator.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 132,400 in the 2024–2034 base year to 123,800 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 8,700 jobs, or -6.5%. Declining: -6.5% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 10,700 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 50.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 37.5% |
| Some College Courses | 8.3% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 4.2% |

## What the work involves

- Collect and test water and sewage samples, using test equipment and color analysis standards.
- Operate and adjust controls on equipment to purify and clarify water, process or dispose of sewage, and generate power.
- Record operational data, personnel attendance, or meter and gauge readings on specified forms.
- Inspect equipment or monitor operating conditions, meters, and gauges to determine load requirements and detect malfunctions.
- Add chemicals, such as ammonia, chlorine, or lime, to disinfect and deodorize water and other liquids.
- Direct and coordinate plant workers engaged in routine operations and maintenance activities.
- Clean and maintain tanks, filter beds, and other work areas, using hand tools and power tools.
- Maintain, repair, and lubricate equipment, using hand tools and power tools.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operation and Control — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Equipment Maintenance — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.75 |
| C — Conventional | 4.60 |
| I — Investigative | 2.55 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.62 |
| S — Social | 1.57 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 90.9 |
| ISFJ | 76.3 |
| ISTP | 76.0 |
| ESTJ | 75.5 |
| INTJ | 65.3 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Chemical Plant and System Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chemical-plant-and-system-operator) — median $78,120
- [Biomass Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biomass-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Power Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/power-plant-operator) — median $102,040
- [Hydroelectric Plant Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hydroelectric-plant-technician) — median $102,040
- [Gas Plant Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-plant-operator) — median $87,820
- [Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setter, Operator, and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/separating-filtering-clarifying-precipitating-and-still-machine-setter-operator-and-tender) — median $51,610
- [Chemical Equipment Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chemical-equipment-operator-and-tender) — median $58,040
- [Petroleum Pump System Operator, Refinery Operator, and Gauger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/petroleum-pump-system-operator-refinery-operator-and-gauger) — median $96,710
- [Stationary Engineer and Boiler Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stationary-engineer-and-boiler-operator) — median $78,620
- [Gas Compressor and Gas Pumping Station Operator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gas-compressor-and-gas-pumping-station-operator) — median $77,320

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/water-and-wastewater-treatment-plant-and-system-operator