doctorhotpants

A few general lab tests (pH, free/total chlorine, turbidity), additional sampling for external labs (bacteriological, other water parameters the internal lab isn’t certified for), chem dosage rate adjustments, chemical ordering, pump maintenance/repairs, sob when a parameter falls out of range and you have to issue a precautionary potable water advisory.

It largely depends on the type of plant beyond that. Mine is ground water green sand and out of commission RO. The green sand skids need to be turned on/off (which involves changing valving as well as just pressing the power button) to fill the tanks, backwashed when the turbidity is too high. The RO requires chemical cleans. The wells require monitoring. Extremely simple. Because green sand is among the most simple forms of water treatment lmao. My facility also makes ultrapure water at the rate of 6-12 L/s for industrial purposes and that process involves at least 10x the work.

Basically be prepared to be a jack of all trades. You need to know a little bit of everything hands on to be an operator. A decent mechanical aptitude is a must—I strictly do lab work but there is still so much troubleshooting that you just. Won’t survive if you don’t know how to fix equipment.

Sooo, I was wondering about Rachel and Ivy -- for awhile there, it looked like they were going to eventually get together, what with Rachel slowly warming up to her and Kisten being a safe(ish!) version of Ivy. Hell, they had some preeeetty heavy moments, what with the blood drinking and Rachel's jealousy of Skimmer and anyone else that monopolised Ivy's time. So what happened there that Trent and Rachel became the main focus? Other than Ivy and Rachel (at the time) being too messed up to have a proper, functioning relationship, that is. It just seemed like a pretty sudden switch and kinda backpedally.

And now I'm going to go back to obsessively refreshing the ups tracking page. Ship faster, Undead Pool!

Holy shit, I have my class 2 (for a class 1 facility (so I’m maxed out and ineligible for a higher ticket) for an industrial site, water/wastewater is a relatively small portion of my duties) and my province won’t even let people get their class 4 unless they have four years of post secondary and at least four years of experience with two as DRC. The differences in requirements is wild considering that we all have to pass the exact same exams.

In my case, I’m actually an industrial chem tech who does potable water (and waste water) for the ~100 people on my site. I needed a chem tech diploma at minimum (I have a degree haha total overkill) buuuut I did take all the water/wastewater courses with geeeenerally a bunch of dudes that are basically ‘town guys’—the dudes who do literally every single bit of infrastructure maintenance and operation in small towns. All of the training is done on the job and your work sponsors you for the water/wastewater courses so one route people get in is manual labour->working their way up.

I did apply for a city water plant lab position back before I got this job (starting pay was around 25/hr CAD). The only requirements were chem tech or chemistry degree or something related. So you could literally just apply—you’re already qualified.

Pay varies wildly. I make 45/hr with my class 2 (and the current starting pay for my position is something like 35-40 bucks an hour), but the pay is more for my other work than the potable work. If you like the idea of hands on work like that, you can also try for chem tech positions in other industrial sites. It’s always varied work and always a bit physical.

For example, today I’m doing a chem clean on a heat exchanger! That involves physically moving bags of dry chemical, stringing hoses, operating valves and pumps. Mentally, you’ve gotta be able to trace the lines and conceptually understand the flow of water so that you don’t fuck up the valving and send your chemical off into the abyss. Sometimes that’s easy cuz you’re hooking your clean skid up right to the inlet/outlet of the heat exchanger. Sometimes it is NOT because it’s a wild mass of piping with dozens of valves you need to verify the state for.

Jammer in the box, maybe?