WITH INCREASED INTEREST IN ALTER-
native water supplies, advanced water
treatment (AWT) has become a hot topic
in the regional water industry. In SOURCE Fall 2016
we featured two articles, one a report on a workshop
of industry professionals that explored advanced wa-ter
treatment operator training and certification, the
other a discussion of a WateReuse Research Foun-dation
report undertaken in support of the California
State Water Resources Control Board’s (SWRCB)
expert panel on direct potable reuse. Since both dis-cussions
took as their starting point the importance
of well-trained and experienced operators, we thought
it was time to hear from operators themselves. One
important takeaway from the conversation was the
need for better communication between the people in
the plants and the policy makers and regulators who
to varying degrees define their jobs.
Tyson Neely is operations manager for the Orange County
Water District’s (OCWD) Groundwater Replenishment System
(GWRS), the largest groundwater replenishment system in the
world) and its Green Acres Project (GAP). Jon Bradley is chief
plant operator at Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD)
Plant 1, which supplies 140 million gallons a day (MGD) of
secondary treated Spec water to OCWD. Neely has 30 years
experience in collection systems management and wastewater
treatment including over 15 years of AWT operation specific
to indirect potable reuse (IPR). He joined OCWD a year
before GWRS came on line in 2008. Previously, he worked at
the IPR reverse osmosis (RO) facility operated by the City of
Chandler, AZ. He holds SWRCB Treatment Plant Operator
Grade 5 and Drinking Water Treatment Operator Grade 3 and
Drinking Water Distribution Operator Grade 2 certifications.
Bradley has worked in wastewater for 12 years, 10 of them
at OCSD. He holds SWRCB Wastewater Treatment Plant
Operator Grade 5 certification and has a bachelor’s degree in
business administration.
SOURCE: Where do GWRS advanced water treatment
operators come from?
Tyson: Our operators have come predominantly out of
wastewater. Recently we’ve hired some drinking water certified
operators because SWRCB’s Recycled Water regulations accept
water operator certification as the same as wastewater operator
TYSON NEELY
Operations Manager
Orange County Water District
OPERATORS JOIN THE
DIALOGUE ON ADVANCED
WATER TREATMENT
CERTIFICATION
By Penelope Grenoble
SOURCE Editor
THE SOURCE certification. However, for operators to progress internally, they
have to advance through the higher levels of wastewater treat-ment
operator certification.
We recently hired two new operators who had only water
treatment certifications, but one of them came with substantial
microfiltration (MF) experience and the other came with RO
and ultraviolet (UV) experience. Many certified operators we
interview come with experience in conventional processes that
employ few, if any advanced processes even though AWT tech-nologies
such as ultrafiltration (UF), MF, membrane bioreactor
(MBR) and UV disinfection systems exist in both conventional
water and wastewater treatment.
In general, operators with experience know what a log book
is and its purpose, they understand operational trends, hy-draulics,
much of the biology and chemistry, and the chemical
systems and industrial safety practices. All these are part of
our daily lives no matter what type of treatment plant we’re
working in. Ultimately, however, operators with only conven-tional
treatment experience require more training to learn the
proper operation of interrelated AWT processes and their ex-tensive
support and management systems.
SOURCE: One assumption seems to be that current
certifications don’t reflect what an advanced treat-
22 SOURCE winter 2017