State Regulators Respond As Water-Industry Engineers Retire

Tennessee is trying to plug the water-sector "brain drain," a problem that poses major risks to water utilities as a generation of engineers and other highly-skilled workers retire.

Ray Kogan, AIA, Principal of Kogan & Company, a management consulting firm in Arlington, VA, foresee a mass exodus of highly-skilled personnel, particularly engineers, from the workforce.

"In the next 15 years, the number of architects and engineers aged 55-64 will increase by 47%, while the number of those aged 33-54 will decrease by 6%," Kogan said, per Building Design + Construction.

The trend is predicted to hit the water industry particularly hard. "This social phenomenon will cause vacancies in our staffing," according to a research paper published by the Water Environment Federation (WEF). The report said it could lead to a loss in institutional knowledge at water utilities.

Tennessee is fighting back. The state is partnering with Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) to invest in the next generation of water-industry personnel.

Under the partnership, unveiled in April at the state Capitol, MTSU will work with the state "to train students in water resource management. The move was borne out of the looming demand for qualified water and wastewater management workers in Tennessee," according to the Daily News Journal.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) is leading the effort. Brandon Hulette, director of TDEC’s Fleming Training Center in Murfreesboro, explained why this is an urgent matter.

"Tennessee will need 45 percent more water and wastewater operators by 2020, according to [Hulette]. To meet that need, experts will take a two-pronged approach: training new workers and enhancing the skills of workers who are already in the field," the report said.

Hulette framed the effort as a win-win. “We reached out to MTSU to enhance our ability to prepare a trained workforce to go into careers that are already out there,” Hulette said. “Working together we can do better than either institution could do on its own.”

The program is intended to benefit a variety of students, including the engineers of the future. "Fleming Training Center offers cutting-edge technology and advanced classes in a variety of water areas, and this partnership will allow traditional and non-traditional students to take full advantage," TDEC Commissioner Bob Martineau said, per WGNS radio. "Having qualified candidates for these jobs is essential for protecting public health and the environment."

The program intends to produce highly-skilled personnel. "These degrees will prepare workers for high-quality, in-demand positions in Tennessee," said Robert Fischer, dean of the MTSU College of Basic and Applied Sciences. "We're preparing these students for careers, not just jobs."