The wastewater treatment operator certification roles in Nebraska list some 900 people. Many, if not most, of them have been trained by Russell Irwin, a program specialist with the state Department of Environmental Quality’s training, certification and technical assistance section.

During 36 years with the department, Irwin traveled the state giving training classes for operators seeking Class 1 and Class 2 certification. He also handled administrative functions related to certification and provided on-site troubleshooting support to operators. He retired August 26 at age 71.

Irwin estimates he trained as many as 1,000 operators in the past 10 years, and he has known the satisfaction of watching them progress in their careers and achieve high performance in treatment plants around the state, and elsewhere. He talked about his experiences as a trainer in an interview with Treatment Plant Operator.

TPO: How did you get involved in wastewater treatment?

Irwin: I graduated from Sterling College in Sterling, Kan., in 1963 with a B.A. degree in social science and an emphasis in education. I taught junior high school science seven years in three different places.

I later went to the wastewater technical school in Neosho, Mo., and studied to be a wastewater operator. When I graduated from that nine-month program, it just happened to be the time when the EPA had money to fund an operator trainer in every state, plus a secretary, for one year. I wrote letters to the states of Nebraska and Kansas, and I got the job in Nebraska. That was in 1973. The job involved classroom training as well as on-site assistance and troubleshooting for operators at their own treatment plants.

TPO:

So that’s what you’ve been doing ever since?

Irwin:

Not quite. The national training center was shut down in 1980, so there was a gap during which my agency assigned me to do treatment plant inspections rather than training. I did inspections until 1984. Then the feds revived the funding for treatment plant assistance, and I switched sections within the department and got into training again. Since then, the people in charge have changed three or four times, but my position hasn’t changed much. It’s been a good life.

TPO:

What would you say is the biggest challenge you have faced in your years as a trainer?

Irwin:

In 1987, the state legislature passed mandatory certification for wastewater treatment operators. I was involved at that time in the voluntary certification program run by the Nebraska Water Environment Association.

When certification became mandatory, that started a pretty serious amount of classroom training. Operators had a deadline to get certified by August 1989. So 1988 and 1989 were very busy years.

Also at that time, the people who had voluntary certification before the August 1989 deadline were grandfathered into the program. So for our very last voluntary certification test, we had quite a roomful of people. They wanted to take the voluntary certification test, which was open book, rather than the mandatory test.

Ever since that time, our certification law has required us to do training somewhere in the state at least once a quarter. I did that pretty much myself. I typically gave four or five training programs per year. My last class was August 4 in North Platte.

TPO:

What levels of certification are offered in Nebraska?

Irwin:

There are five levels: Wastewater Operator Class 1, 2, 3 and 4, plus a level for lagoon treatment systems only. I was involved with training for Class 1 and 2. I’ve been involved with a lot of people, helping them get started in the field.

TPO:

What did you find the most rewarding about your career?

Irwin:

There just seem to be a lot of good people in the wastewater business. They really want to learn and do a good job. It’s satisfying to see people making progress in their careers. Some of my students have gone on to other places, to higher levels of certification, and to higher-level positions.

People in wastewater seem to come with pretty good work ethics. They’re fairly versatile as a group. In a small town, the water and wastewater guy may also be the dogcatcher, mow the parks, plow the snow. They seem to be able to balance all those things and get most of it done.

I had experiences recently with a couple of people from farming backgrounds getting into wastewater treatment. Those guys, when something needs fixing, they’ll whip out the pliers or whatever is needed and fix it, whereas some other folks might just go to a catalog and order a new one. It’s interesting to see people who are willing to solve problems with a bit of work.

TPO:

What kinds of backgrounds did you see new operators coming from?

Irwin:

It seems a lot of us get into wastewater treatment somewhat accidentally. It’s not a job that many people set out to do on purpose — circumstances just seem to lead people to this field.

I recently talked to one of my former students, probably from the mid-1980s. He had been in construction, and in fact he helped build a treatment plant in Ogallala, Neb. He decided he didn’t want to travel around with a construction crew anymore, so he settled down and worked at the treatment plant in Ogallala for a while.

Then he went to Kennebunk, Maine. In the meantime he had married a Nebraska girl. They got homesick and came back, and he got a job in Sterling, Colo., not very far from Ogallala. He has progressed up the ladder and is now in charge of water and wastewater in Sterling. He was recently appointed to the certification board in Colorado.

It’s rewarding to know I helped inspire him to get up and do those kinds of things. He told me he appreciated the class work, and he said he wished he had gotten into wastewater treatment earlier in the game.

TPO:

When acting as a troubleshooter for plant operators, what were some of the more common problems you had to solve?

Irwin:

We have a large number of activated sludge plants in this state, and I had to help people learn that wasting sludge was not a bad thing to do. When I started out, the word “wasting” had a very bad connotation. These people’s parents had been through the depression, and they had been taught not to waste anything. Well, you have to waste your sludge. When they figured that out, it made things work better.

A lot of people needed a little help with their arithmetic. Another process-related issue was controlling the return activated sludge. A lot of plants had airlift pumps for that purpose, and they were a little tricky to adjust.

TPO:

Do you have any memorable moments as a troubleshooter?

Irwin:

My colleagues sometimes joke about the fact that I once fell into a final clarifier. I couldn’t swim, so it was a good thing one of our engineers, Curt Christiansen, was with me that day. He pulled me out. We had done some on-site work at the plant in Avoca. The operator wasn’t around because he had a full-time job somewhere else. We were in there looking around, and I leaned over the guardrail a little bit too far, and the next thing I knew I was in there.

TPO:

Looking ahead, what do you see coming down the road for the profession?

Irwin:

The regulations are probably going to get tighter. People here are still working on meeting the ammonia standards, and if the state gets to regulating total nitrogen, that will require some adjustment. There is some talk about adding phosphorus limits. Phos-phorus removal seems like it might be a little tricky to accomplish.

TPO:

Many areas of the country see a coming shortage of treatment operators. Do you see that in your part of the world?

Irwin:

Things don’t seem to be heading that way. A lot of Nebraska people like to stay put. They may go around the world a little bit, but then they come back here, and they stay. In the small towns, they have pretty good luck in finding someone who likes the variety that the jobs give, and like living where they grew up. You can find people when you need them.

People are getting into the business at a mixture of ages. Some have decided they don’t want the pressure of whatever they’ve been doing. They want something a little more relaxed, and they may get that in municipal work. We also have young folks coming in.

TPO:

What comes next for you, now that you’re retired?

Irwin:

I might do a little woodworking. There are some places I haven’t been to before, like the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls. And I want to see if I can find some way to stay involved in the business a little bit — answering questions for people, maybe doing a little consulting.

TPO:

What will you remember most about your career?

Irwin:

When I would go to a treatment plant and find their effluent sparkling clean — that was always really nice to see. It hasn’t always been that way.