There’s been a great deal written about shortages of workers in many critical fields for state and local governments. Typically, some of the occupations mentioned are in police and fire departments, teachers and nurses.

But “Building a Resilient Water Workforce in U.S. Cities,” a new report from the National League of Cities, points to a frequently unnoticed workforce challenge: “Water and wastewater utilities across the United States are facing a growing workforce challenge driven by retirement and rising technical demands. Roughly one-third of the water workforce is expected to become eligible for retirement within the next decade, leaving an estimated 10,000 openings for water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators each year through 2034, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics.”

“For cities,” the report goes on, “the challenge is practical and immediate: recruiting and maintaining enough licensed operators to ensure safe drinking water, treated wastewater, regulatory compliance and system reliability.”

One of the issues is that there are thousands of water and wastewater utilities spread across the nation, many of which have only tiny staffs. As the report explains, “This fragmented structure complicates workforce development. Smaller utilities face limited labor pools, constrained training budgets and fewer opportunities to build internal career pipelines. Research from the American Water Works Association (PDF) shows that fewer than 60 percent of utilities report fully funded workforce training programs, even as regulatory requirements and treatment technologies grow more complex.”

Unlike other fields, like correctional officers, the problem here isn’t that of inadequate compensation.  According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2024, water and wastewater treatment plant operators earned a median annual wage of $58,260, about 17 percent higher than the national median across all occupations.

The bigger problems, according to the NLC are that there’s not a broad awareness that these jobs exist. Moreover, “each state has its own operator licensing process, which typically includes training courses and an exam. These courses can be expensive and difficult to access for people in rural areas or those who are working in other jobs.”

One potential solution: An organization called Veolia which has over 215,000 employees on five continents, and deploys “useful, practical solutions for the management of water, waste and energy that are contributing to a radical turnaround of the current situation.” It has partnered with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) and the American Water Works Association (AWWA), to form the Veolia Workforce Academy North America.  

As the NLC report explains, “The Academy is a free, fully digital training program designed to prepare individuals for state operator licensing and careers in drinking water and wastewater treatment. The program hosts more than 360 hours of license-aligned coursework covering topics from foundational treatment processes to advanced operator exam preparation.”  

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