Water treatment operators ensure the quality of public drinking water and protect the environment by cleaning wastewater. The United States is currently facing a shortage of water treatment operators. Moreover, ⅓ of current operators are eligible for retirement within the next 10 years. Facing such a serious shortage puts both public health and the environment at risk. For our project, we worked with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to identify the causes of the operator shortage and develop recommendations to increase awareness and recruitment for the water treatment field. To achieve this goal, we conducted 18 interviews with municipal officials and private corporations and collected 206 survey responses from vocational high school and community college students.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Wu, Yiyang
• Wong, Matthew
• Nguyen, Thuyen

Subject

• Community
• Water
• Sustainability
• Inclusion
• Project-Based Learning
• Environment

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 67076
• E-project-050222-142347

Palabra Clave

• Treatment
• Shortage
• Awareness
• Water
• Operators

Advisor

• Dehner, Corey

Year

• 2022

Center

• Water Resource Outreach Center (Massachusetts) - IQP

Sponsor

• Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation

Date created

• 2022-05-02

Resource type

• Interactive Qualifying Project

Rights statement

• In Copyright