Why the Aging Water Utility Workforce is a Major Problem
Image courtesy of Chad Davis under Attribution 2.0 Generic Deed, resized to 700 x 391 pixels.
The aging water utility workforce in the U.S. is an issue because younger workers aren’t exactly banging down the door trying to get in. The resulting brain drain will create headwinds that will negatively impact efforts to modernize U.S. water infrastructure as well as overall service reliability.
Breaking Down the Risk of the Aging Water Utility Workforce
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, a whopping 450k water mains are awaiting repair due to funding. In the meantime, 33 trillion gallons of potable water are leaking through compromised piping every year.
Additionally, 240k water main breaks occur each year, which directly impact reliability. While this may not necessarily be a water disaster, these are emergency events that require operational knowledge to resolve. They require a robust, dedicated workforce to mitigate, but unfortunately interest in water utility careers is on the decline. Simply put, there is no succession plan.
The solution as put forth by the largest U.S. water utility, American Water, as well as other key industry players and government agencies, is a coalition approach. The objective would be to pool resources and ‘get the word out’ that water utility work is important, innovative, and satisfying.
American Water is not immune to these industry forces, as 35% of its employee base will be eligible for retirement in the next few years. To plan for this inevitability, the company is focused on developing a recruitment pipeline. They key to filling the pipeline is awareness, and, again, showing that water utility employment is cool. Additionally, the company leverages train-to-hire concepts, and partnerships with nonprofits, employers, universities, unions, work development boards, chambers of commerce and other organizations as a recruiting tool.
Of course, American Water is unique due its size and scale. Most water system operators are small water utilities that do not have access to the same level of resources. That said, something must be done, even if it’s just grass-roots efforts, because the aging water utility workforce in the U.S. is an issue that is not going away anytime soon.
