I wrote this in 1996 for the Ky-Tn Wea newsletter.
BY RAYBURN CASEY HALL
I reached my 25th wedding anniversary and my 25th year as a wastewater treatment plant operator last year. Being a sentimental type person I pondered over the decisions that I made a quarter of a century ago and wondered why I stayed married and continued as an operator. Figuring out why I stayed married was easy with a loving wife, a wonderful daughter , and two of the sweetest grandchildren around. But how I became a wastewater treatment plant operator and stayed at it for 25 years took just a little more thinking.
I truly believe America is a land of opportunity where you can choose to do what you want to do for a living. Well I chose what I wanted to do the old fashioned way and that is by the process of elimination. Following are some careers that I considered and the reasons I turned them down. My dad was a truck driver but I couldn't sit for a long time staring out a window. My Uncle was an iron worker but I could never master the wolf whistle that construction workers have to learn. I considered being an auto mechanic but I was always sober and on the job. All of these jobs are great jobs for the right people but I wanted something that would get me away from the farm in North East Alabama.
I thought of being a fireman but I can't sit around and watch TV all day while waiting for something to happen. I couldn't be a policeman because I can't pronounce the word Cop the way they spit it out. I thought being a lawyer would be great but I couldn't hold a poker face while I lied. My Mama wanted me to be a preacher but I was the kind of person that had to be living what I preached. Mama would have really been proud if I had studied medicine. But I just couldn't handle the pressure of making a million dollars a year and playing golf every day while a bunch of sick people sit in my office waiting on me to help them.
I think I would have been a natural born engineer because I like designing things and solving problems. But Engineers have to go through a mind forming class before they can receive their degrees and graduate. There are several thoughts that has to be etched into their subconscious before they can become Professional Engineers. One, they are always right and never make mistakes. Two, common sense is an old wives tale. Three, they are smarter than any wastewater treatment plant operator.
For a time I considered the career of a writer. But I lost interest when I found out that all sentences and paragraphs had to be structured by using correct grammar. And when they said I couldn't write it the way I said it, I knew I could never be another Mark Twain . I did write some poetry but I didn't have a Raven and I wasn't insane. I learned to play the guitar and thought about a career in Country Music, but once I got out of those cotton fields, life was too good to sing sad songs. I eliminated being a Rock star because I was not physically able to scream loud enough. I didn't become a movie star because I'm too shy to use their type of artistic expressions of cursing and going nude in public.
While eliminating the job I didn't want, I was working on an assembly line in a factory at very low wages. One day I was at my Uncle's house and he told me about a place called the treatment plant that had expanded and was hiring some people. I didn't even know what a treatment plant was but I was interested. It meant a raise in pay and he said all you did was push buttons. I went to work at the Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1971.
When I'm asked why I stayed in this business for 25 years many cliche answers come to mine and they are all true in my case. But actually, I stayed because it is a non-traditional unique job. No, the product we deal with is not what makes the job different. It's the perspectives of the people that sends you the product and the people that works with it that makes it unique. Below are some examples of what I'm talking about and these cases are the rule of thumb. As in any observation or opinion there is always an exeption.
I have never seen an operator that said he was going to be a wastewater treatment plant operator on career day in grammar school. I never met an operator who intended to stay in the wastewater field. I've seen operators come in our plant and swear they are not going to stay and they are still saying it 20 years later. A few do end up leaving after getting a few years experience - for other wastewater plants. When they reach retirement age they are always going to retire next year . I wonder sometimes if there is something in the wastewater that causes people to act that way.
Most operators would be good candidates for the CIA because they are so secretive about their occupation. A conversation between an operator and his neighbor goes something like this:
"What do you do for a living?"
"I work for the government."
"Which branch of government?"
"The city."
"Which department?"
"Public Works."
"Which division?"
"Waste Resources."
"Oh, your a garbage man."
"No! Hey man I gotta go, my wife is calling me."
I was at dinner one night on a cruise ship and all of us at the table began introducing ourselves and telling what we did for a living. There was a retired deputy sheriff, a salesman, a business man and a career vacationer that had sold his business and retired. I was going to introduce myelf next but the guy next to me announced his name and said he was an Engineer. I told them my name and that I work for the government.
In order to educate the public and improve our public relations we conduct tours through our plant. Some times they can pose some really tough questions. Like, how can you stand to work here and do you take a bath before you go home and do you ever get used to the smell. I have a hard time understanding some of them because they have their hands over their mouth and are pinching their nose. Some of them want to know about a secret valve we open after dark to by-pass the plant.
Most people don't know where the wastewater leaving their house goes to. We have being trying out a couple of slogans on our visitors to help them remember us. One is "You flush 'em and we'll crush 'em" and the other one is "Your No.2 business is our No.1 business" . So far we have had mixed reviews on them.
There have been a lot of changes to improve the wastewater plant operators image in the last 25 years. But personally I never thought anything was wrong with how we looked. For instance, they said that the word sewage brought forth a bad image to people when it was used in public. So we started using the word wastewater instead of sewage because it was more acceptable. The problem is you have to explain to people what wastewater is. Usually when you do their response is "Oh, you mean sewage".
Recently there was a campaign to change the word sludge to bio-solids. But the image improvers don't understand that there is a four letter word that perfectly describes the product we work with in our business and wastewater treatment operators are not going to quit calling it by its proper name.
To get serious for a moment there is no easy answer why people become operators and continue to be for years. But I am proud to be in an industry that cleans and protects one of our most important resources - water. Most operators that I have come in contact with in Tennessee and Kentucky feel the same way.
A note to all Engineers: To be fair, next time we'll talk about Salesmen and Contractors.
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