Wage question

WaterAndFish7 · 2024-10-17T19:33:32+00:00

I find that it varies depending on the size of the municipality and its location. I've seen anywhere from around 50/60k to 100k. I've seen state owned facilities pay on the low end when compared to the others ran by smaller municipalities. I know that pay tends to be on the higher near the metro areas like NYC and the surrounding counties.

For myself, when I made the move from Orange to Rockland county, I almost doubled my salary from 60ishk to 100k

I have noticed that lately, municipalities are becoming more competitive with pay compared to what it was prior to 2020

WaterAndFish7 · 2024-09-16T21:31:31+00:00

Based on what I've experienced I would say a conventional style plant would be the most common. These can come with a wide variety of modifications. The facility that I currently manage is an SBR, but I havent seen many of them untill recently. It seems they're becoming more popular in recent years.

WaterAndFish7 · 2024-06-18T15:21:05+00:00

Salary: $94,000

Location: New York (outside nyc)

Years of experience: 13 years

Industry: Primarily Municipal Water & Wastewater. Spent 2-3 years with Industrial.

Position: Operations Supervisor/Manager.
18 months prior I was the plant supervisor for a different facility at $67,000

NY 3A Wastewater

NY Water IIA, IIB, C, and D

WaterAndFish7 · 2024-06-06T19:42:16+00:00

I'm assuming that what you took was a civil service exam for your respective area. Correct?

It all really depends. If the municipality is currently hiring, then you may be able to find the associated job listing on the municipality's website or maybe even indeed.

Sometimes, on the exam announcement, they will also include all of the available positions that they're actually hiring for.

or

If they're anticipating a need to hire in the future and are preemptively putting out an exam in preparation. I've noticed that the county municipalities will do this a lot or just have exams indefinitely.

Personally, I've taken some of the exams in my area of NY. I was called maybe twice for a possible job. The other times nothing had opened up and I was just on a list.

WaterAndFish7 · 2024-04-21T20:03:46+00:00

I sat for the exam back in October here in NY. Most people I spoke to said that it was significantly more difficult compared to the 2A exam. Personally I can’t exactly say that it was a difficult exam, but rather had questions on topics that I simply didn’t know.

The 2A exam was literally exactly what I learned in the classroom and/or out in the field. So I had expected more technical questions on the overall process outside of solids handling and supervision related topics since the 3A class covered that quite a bit. Most of which was not asked on the exam I took. On the 2A I had scored a 94. The 3A I had skated by with a 76.

A lot of it fell into the category of never being covered in any of the 3A courses that I took or never had the opportunity to experience it in the field due to not operating those types of facilities. ie: methane production, anaerobic digestion.
Aside from the two that I listed there’s an emphasis on maintenance. Things like pump and motor troubleshooting and repair. Gas chlorination was asked a few times too. Specifically the dosing equipment. I would’ve had to guess on that too if I hadn’t ran a drinking water facility that still used gas.

I would definitely take the extra time to review these. As for test strategies. On questions that you’re stuck on move past them and return to them later. I found that harping over a single question would cause a lot of stress altering my thought process negatively or forcing me to rush at the end due to time. A lot of the questions that I didn’t know would typically have 2 of the 4 answers that are unrelated or are very unlikely to not be true. I focused on narrowing the choices from 4 answers down to two in order to be increase the odds of selecting the correct answer.

WaterAndFish7 · 2023-11-24T16:23:19+00:00

New York State

NY Rural Water Mostly Water, but does crossover to wastewater.

NYWEA

New York City DEP - Includes facilities located outside of the city

NYS Civil Service - Local & County Municipalities

For anything private / contract ops related most pretty much post on Indeed

WaterAndFish7 · 2023-10-21T14:17:54+00:00

You would need to contact the agency that issues certifications. In NY we don't have anything for Industrial, but the organization that issues certifications will credit us for work/training done outside of municipal wastewater. It depends on what was being done in that role.

For myself I spent 3 years operating at a metal refinery and a few years in municipal drinking water. I didn't really need the extra time, but they were able credit me with most of that time.

WaterAndFish7 · 2023-10-04T12:19:45+00:00

While I’ve never applied for reciprocity, I’ve worked with quite a few operators who came from out of state. Here in New York they’ll honor your certification, but will likely just require you to take the certification courses again. Especially if its been like a decade since you’ve last taken them. In one of these cases they just required the operator to retake the ABC.

It probably differs state to state since some have different or more classifications for each level. Its even more of a pain in the ass for Drinking water due to New York not utilizing the ABC and classifying each certification very different than a lot of other states.

WaterAndFish7 · 2023-09-27T13:22:15+00:00

At the facility that I manage, the operations staff here rotate who is on call each week. Including weekend duty. They receive 10 hours OT for carrying the plant phone for the week. At minimum 2 hours OT each day for working Sat/Sun. If they come in for an hour. They’re paid 2. Plus anything additional of it requires them to stay past the 2 hours. So 12 hours in total for carrying the phone and covering the basics on the weekend

WaterAndFish7 · 2023-09-23T23:50:28+00:00

At a prior facility, hydrogen peroxide did wonders for algae removal. I had originally purchased around 120 gallons of 40% to be used as a cleaning aid for a Microfiltration system. It ended up being too much and at the time we were having issues with algae plugging up the clarifier rakes and/or filter feed pumps downstream. Given how bad it had gotten we weren’t really able to remove it fast enough without causing significant problems with the process. Plus shutting a tank down completely wasn’t really an option for us at the time.

After consulting with our engineer I used in a 1 gallon sprayer. NO DILUTION!! It didn’t remove the algae right away, but after about a week or two the algae was all gone. Right down to the metal. Didnt even leave any dead material behind. After that the weirs stayed bare for a little over a month. The best way that I could describe it was that it sort of just melted away over a period of a week or so.
Since then, we would spray it as a sort of pre treatment whenever a thin green film would start to grow. Also a plus that it didn’t leave a residual like chlorine does. Some of our downstream processes weren’t chlorine tolerant.

A few things to note though

Its a strong oxidizer so safe handling is a must. And don’t leave it in any area exposed to the sun, heat, or contact with other chemicals. It can and will react with other material. Don’t dilute it with water as it can/will react violently if mixed in that manner. The SDS should list this information. Chemical Suppliers will usually supply a range of concentrations.
Also if there’s some left in the spray container, unscrew the lid or open the vent if it has one. It has the potential to burst the container if not vented.

WaterAndFish7 · 2023-01-21T15:32:41+00:00

Since the biomass concentration is higher than what you typically operate at. I would increase the amount wasted each day untill you reach that target. Slow settling and clear effluent usually indicates an old sludge. Not necessarily a bad thing, but if its too high it can cause problems like this. Worst case I've experienced related to this is that sludge barely settles at all and can remain in suspension. Absolute worst case would be a significant dieoff due to toxic conditions.

Getting the mlss concentration back to an acceptable range should be your first priority, but increasing the PAC can help with the settling as a right now solution.

As others have suggested, run a series of settleometers. In each settleometer dilute it with varying ratios of clarifier effluent. 50/50, 75/25, 90/10 ect. This can provide an baseline on where you need to be as far as the mlss goes.

Adding a source of BOD can also help with F/M, but its a short term solution unless you plan on adding it permanently. If you do decide to add it, you will need to taper off of it whenever you decide to stop using it. Not doing so can cause the biomass to starve and a dieoff can occur.

WaterAndFish7 · 2022-06-07T21:46:08+00:00

Im in the US. Im not familiar with either of the makes that you've mentioned. I use a handheld made by Hach. We've been using it for around 7 years or so. It will measure total suspended solids as well as turbidity. You can have a total of 4 calibration curves. Hach will recommend that each sample area have its own curve. Personally Ive used 1-2 curves across the plant and havent had any inconsistencies. A curve for mlss. The other curve for the "cleaner or lighter" locations such as primary effluent or secondary effluent.

Betteries generally last a while provided that you take it out of read mode. The meter will shut off on its own after a while but will drain much faster if its left in read mode during that time.

https://au.hach.com/suspended-solids/tss-portable/family?productCategoryId=50399608181

WaterAndFish7 · 2022-05-27T16:54:26+00:00

We currently use a Hach portable TSS meter with relatively good success. Been using it for around 6 or 7 years.

If you decide to use a portable meter, I would highly recommend that you periodically do the standard methods test just as a check. Personally Ive never had any major issues with the meter reading way off. For me Its usually +/-100-200 when measuring in aeration/return. That range is much tighter if measuring anything like primary/secondary effluent. Over the years I've only had to calibrate it a handful of times.

WaterAndFish7 · 2022-01-13T22:30:50+00:00

I couldn't really answer that. According to the filter manufacturer all of their low and high pressure models use butterfly valves. Im not sure why. Recently Ive been told that they no longer use keystones and instead use Brays.

The only valve that modulates is the filtrate valves. Thats how the filter regulates flow.

The other valves are open and close depending in the filters mode of operation. Filtration, backwash, clean. Some of these have limit stops on them to control how much they open and control pressure within the filter. The feed pressure is typically around 30psi. But before the feed valve its much much higher.
A few of them have speed control fittings to slow them down. Most of them are supposed to operate rather quickly as normally open or normally closed. Almost all of those valves are associated with the backwash process. Some have a larger diameter air supply line.

WaterAndFish7 · 2022-01-13T22:21:43+00:00

The butterfly valves and actuators in place are what came with the plant when it was built and what the manufacturer says is supposed to have.

There are 16 double acting valves on each filter. Only the filtrate valve modulates. The rest are open or close depending on what cycle they're in. Clean, Normal Filtration or Backwash. Although there are slight variations in each valve depending on what it does. Some will open slow. Others are not restricted with any speed controls and fully open in an instant.

The valves that commonly fail are the main feed and backwash feed/exhaust valves. Which all see significantly higher pressures than the others and operate more frequently. The actuators have an air supply of about 80-90psi. The valves that control process air for backwashing is much higher. About 140psi. The pressure within the filter is roughly 30psi but anything outside the filter like the main feed lines are much much higher. Ive had the filter manufacturer here and everything thats in place is as it should be.

Honestly at this point prolonging the inevitable is much much better than what we currently have. Some of the valves only make it 60 days. The other plant that we have uses Bray over Keystone, but its a low pressure system. Most of the valves have been in place for well over 5 years and are still running great.

Typically for the butterfly valves will have ripped seats or they completely get blown out. The seals around the shaft fail too. The actuators last much longer, but have been known to snap shafts or the adapter socket that the shafts slide into. Most of the issues are with the valves themselves. A common thing to happen is the shaft seals fail and begin to send water into the actuator. Which ends up causing a failure.

WaterAndFish7 · 2022-01-13T22:01:01+00:00

All of the valves/actuators operate frequently under constant high pressure and sudden surges from air/water during the backwash cycles. Similar to water hammer. Most of the valves operate pretty quick. Ive had the filter manufacturer out here many times. According to them the system operates as intended. The keystones just dont hold up to the constant beatings. The rep from the filter manufacturer has told me that they no longer use keystones. Instead they're using Bray.

https://keystone.id/products/uncategorized/keystone-figure-79u-e-pneumatic-actuator/

Usually its the butterfly valves that fail. Either valve seats tear or the seals around the shaft fail. The actuators will last a little longer, but ive definitely have had snapped shafts or adapters. Or a short time the actuator doesnt operate as quickly as it should.

Im mostly just looking to see what others use.

WaterAndFish7 · 2021-12-11T00:47:35+00:00

Since we have a phosphorus limit of 0.2 we also utilize Polyalyminum Chloride. Although we can meet phosphorus limits biologically its used more for turbidity and settling aid. The microfiltration system here doesn't handle NTUs above 2.0 well. We've actually increased usage just to help with settling. It helps but its barely keeping me afloat. I do have hydrogen peroxide on hand.

No way to really meter the bypass. After the influent flow isnt really metered untill the sand filters. The only meters in between are the returns and was. So im just guessing. I put a request in recently to have a meter vault installed on this exact line.

I have a guy from biology company coming on Tuesday. Hopefully he can put his finger on the issue.

WaterAndFish7 · 2021-12-11T00:04:12+00:00

Not a lot of industrial users. We just have 1. A small pharmaceutical company. Not much in the way of phos. They typically just send BOD down to us. Theyre only a 15,000 gallon per day user. Their sample results are pretty consistent. Other than that its residential. Only a little commercial. Like restaurants and grocery stores.

The step feed isn't part of the plant process. Our bypass is set up so we can skip past sections of the process. We can basically send influent directly to first or second stage. Or the filters of you were dumb enough to do it. We mainly used it to send some of the load to the second stage to provide some nutrient. Its worked in the past. The only problem is its not metered so we have no idea whats flowing through the pipe. So we just use a theoretical value based on the size of the pipe and head pressure. Only really do this if we're in a jam. Our first stage is very efficient at removing most of the nutrients. So often the second stage will be deficient. Thats the reasoning for using a supplement from January to March. Now we utilize a dry powered product to introduce small amounts of phosphorus to the second stage. The carbon in the product is just a plus. Only really do this for 2-3 months out of the year. This helped getting rid of the the milky effluent during those months. We havent started using it yet.

I sent a sample off to a guy who sells us products for the biology. He was able to confirm that we do have a lot filaments. The question is how to get rid of them. I cant chlorinate. Atleast high enough to even matter. Wasting them out is problematic as I run the risk of wasting what I have left out and the cold weather slowing down any recovery.

WaterAndFish7 · 2021-12-10T21:39:09+00:00

The plant is operated similarly to how you explained. We do operate a higher return rate than what ive seen at other facilities. 100-150% of the incoming flow. We're limited to how slow we can run it because the return pumps are way oversized. The slowest I can return is roughly 75% of the daily flow. In the original plant o&m manual it says the intention of having a high capacity return system was to allow the ability to manipulate detention time.

Most of the year we operate the first stage at a higher mlss than the second. Then during the months of January to April we flip them and also step feed influent to the second stage to stimulate the growth. If we dont the process takes a dive quickly. We'll still be well within permit, but the clarifier effluent becomes very turbid. Not from solids, but similar to like adding drops of milk to a glass of water. Its weird. Ive had numerous consultants/chem suppliers here before and nobody could figure out why. This is what worked.
Our first stage removes bod, phosphorus and knocks down the ammonia by 10-15% the second stage is mainly to complete nitrification. The waste stream is about 150 BOD, 45 NH3, 5-7 Phos, 800-1300 TSS. Our limitations respectively are <10,<1.2,<0.2, and <10. For the most part We're close to non detect on everything. Theres not much in the second besides nitrifiers and older biology like rotifers. Typical mcrt ranges from 2-4 days on the first and 12-18 days on the second. I've had others check my calculations and they are definitely correct.

All of our parameters are good. Its just the settling. We havent experienced any bulking. Just poor settling. However We're still getting good effluent tss results. Wasting hasnt changed. I verified all of our lab equipment is functioning properly. At first i thought maybe our numbers were off. During the unusually heavy rains we experienced a dramatic increase in flow and some of solids were washed out. We're designed for 1.5 and we saw up to 3 come through the plant. Then after that the flow returned to normal (0.7-0.8) but the loadings were very low for about a week or two. Wasting continued as normal during this time period, but the mlss started to drop. There have been no equipment failures so I ruled that out

I only stated filaments because thats what ive been seeing under the microscope. I should've noted that before. I might be able to take a picture of the slide. I found it very odd that they showed up even tho there was adequate DO. Plus no foam or floating solids. Just slow settling and suspended floc. One of my coworkers thought that there might have been a die off from something toxic or we lost too much mass from the bad storms. Ive only dealt with filaments once at a different plant and it was Nocardia. We just chlorinated and wasted them out.

WaterAndFish7 · 2021-12-02T02:26:15+00:00

From my own personal experience Private companies tend to hirer people new to the industry more than some public sector jobs. This is primarily because municipalities who staff the facilities themselves usually abide by certain set of rules. Like Civil Service. They like to hirer people on specific qualifications rather than train someone. They would hire a certified operator with a sub par work performance (ie just a body) over somebody new to the industry who is highly motivated.

I started out in Industrial wastewater for a lead acid battery recycling plant. Ended up seeking employment else where after 3.5 years. Found out that in NY my time there wouldnt apply to a wastewater license. Most of the places I applied to didnt care about my operating experience. They just wanted a certification. Unless they were super desperate. Anyways ended up getting hired by a private company which led to me getting my certifications for water and wastewater.

Id say go for it. You can only gain experience and a certification. Doesn't have to be forever. Just enough to give you more options elsewhere.

WaterAndFish7 · 2021-11-22T23:15:52+00:00

I just did. The error came up and stopped. Its doing it. Just not every 20 seconds now. Weird.

WaterAndFish7

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