Rianna Laughridge owes her start in the wastewater profession to her observations while scuba diving. Now she’s an operator at the Woodland (California) Water Pollution Control Facility.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental science at California State University, Sacramento. She started at the Woodland plant as an operator-in-training in 2021 and rose quickly to her current position, earning her Grade V certification (highest) in just two years.Her influences: My parents instilled the importance of working hard and making a difference. In my scuba diving, I saw how untreated waste was harming the ecosystem; that led to my senior thesis in
