Water/Wastewater Engineers: Salary, Job Description, How To Become One, and Quiz

Job description

Water/Wastewater Engineers design or oversee projects involving provision of potable water, disposal of wastewater and sewage, or prevention of flood-related damage. Prepare environmental documentation for water resources, regulatory program compliance, data management and analysis, and field work. Perform hydraulic modeling and pipeline design.

• Provide technical direction or supervision to junior engineers, engineering or computer-aided design (CAD) technicians, or other technical personnel.
• Conduct feasibility studies for the construction of facilities, such as water supply systems, runoff collection networks, water and wastewater treatment plants, or wastewater collection systems.
• Design pumping systems, pumping stations, pipelines, force mains, or sewers for the collection of wastewater.
• Design domestic or industrial water or wastewater treatment plants, including advanced facilities with sequencing batch reactors (SBR), membranes, lift stations, headworks, surge overflow basins, ultraviolet disinfection systems, aerobic digesters, sludge lagoons, or control buildings.

Salary

Water/Wastewater Engineers with little to no experience tend to make between $53180 and $66590 while the more experienced ones can earn over $112230 per year.

One of the easiest ways to increase your salary as a Water/Wastewater Engineer is to move to a higher paying state like AK. Right now, the highest paying states for Water/Wastewater Engineers are AK, LA, CA, TX and MD.

However, a higher pay at AK doesn’t guarantee that you will make more because the living expenses at AK might be twice as high than where you are currently at now.

Three other factors that can increase your salary as a Water/Wastewater Engineer is the degree you hold, the industry you work in, and lastly the company you work for.

Requirements

We asked other Water/Wastewater Engineers what degree they had when they got the job and most of them said they had a Bachelor’s Degree followed by a Master’s Degree.

Other than that, we also asked them what did they major in and here are the most popular majors that came up.

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of being a Water/Wastewater Engineer.

What is the job like

70% of Water/Wastewater Engineers said they were satisfied with their job and 60% said they feel like their job is making other people’s lives better.

Is this right for me

You can read more about these career personality types here.

People who are suitable for this job tends to like working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. They like searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally..

They also like work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They like working with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery.

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