Water Quality Technician

What is a water quality technician? Water quality technicians are responsible for monitoring and operating control systems and ensuring that the equipment in water filtration and treatment plants are functioning properly so that water is safe for use. These individuals perform a variety of technical duties, including inspecting, sampling, monitoring, and testing, and work with both groundwater and surface water sources.

At a Glance

Imagine you are kneeling over a deep drinking-water well, carefully recording the data displayed on your electronic tape measure, which tells you how deep the water is inside the well.

You are a water quality technician/technologist and you have been called in to gather samples and test water from private wells in the area.

Several weeks ago, a small oil company constructed a sour gas well less than a kilometre away from some of these homes. Since then, the owners of the wells have been complaining of taste and odour problems with their water. Some have even reported suffering headaches, nausea, and vomiting. Because of these complaints, a comprehensive study has been ordered for each well.

As a water quality technician, you have conducted dozens of comprehensive studies like this one on groundwater wells and surface water lakes and streams.

You start your investigation by properly obtaining samples from each of the area wells. You've been trained to identify undesirable odours in water, including the rotten egg smell these residents are complaining of. If you can smell rotten eggs, you know this is an indicator of high levels of sulphur, hydrogen sulphide, iron bacteria, or sulphate-reducing bacteria in the water.

You will test for most of these at the lab, but hydrogen sulphide presents a special problem. It can dissolve in water and vaporize, so by the time you get the samples to the lab, the hydrogen sulphide will be gone. To test for hydrogen sulphide, you will have to do it right at the well.

The rest of the samples will be analyzed at the lab for parameters such as total dissolved solids, hardness, alkalinity, arsenic, uranium, pH, chlorine, sodium, lead, and bacteria. It can take weeks for you to run these tests, but they must be done to make certain the water from these wells is safe.

Job Duties

What does a water quality technician do? While job duties vary from one position to the next, water quality technicians/technologists are frequently asked to conduct the following activities:

Perform distribution-system flushing operations
Monitor drinking water parameters using field equipment, for example, pH, conductivity, and total dissolved solids meters
Collect and analyze samples
Organize water-sampling schedules
Repair water leaks
Ensure equipment is functioning properly
Perform inspections, tests, maintenance and repair of water lines, engines, wells, and reservoirs
Perform water pressure tests for distribution systems using pressure-recording charts
Conduct bacteriological and chemical testing on samples collected using standard laboratory procedures
Prepare, reviews, summarizes, synthesizes and submits reports
Address complaints of drinking water quality
Conduct visits to sites for continuous monitoring and prevent the potential for pollution or contamination

Work Environment

The work environment for a water quality technician is heavily dependent on the task at hand. You may be indoors or outdoors in dirty, hot, cold, and loud environments. There is also potential to be exposed to potent odours and hazardous chemicals, gases, or bacteria.

It is important for both your safety, and the safety of those around you, that all safety precautions are adhered to, to reduce the risk of injury and/or accidents in the workplace.

Please note, because work in this occupation will most likely be in a facility that operates 24/7, workers may be asked to work weekends, holidays or overtime depending on the priority of the work.

The lab:

Preparing test solutions and processing samples
Testing and analyze water samples and assess quality and clarity
Developing test methodology
Calibrating and maintaining instruments used to measure and record water flow from different sources like rivers and lakes

The office:

Compiling, recording, and interpreting test results
Analyzing data and preparing various records and reports related to water quality regulatory monitoring
Communicating on the phone and in meetings with supervisors, clients, government. departments, colleagues, and other scientists

The field:

Gathering data on water quantity and quality
Monitoring dump sites for potential contamination
Ensuring that water and wastewater facilities continuously meet regulation standards.
Responding to and resolving problems at sites with water quality issues and/or emergencies
Continuously monitoring flow meters and recording instruments to measure water output, bacterial content and levels of chlorine, fluoride and other potential chemicals

Where to Work

There are a number of places water quality technicians/technologists can find employment. They include:

Federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal government departments
Colleges, universities, and research institutes
Environmental consulting firms
Laboratories
Firms in other industries, for example, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, food production, and health care

Search for jobs on the ECO Canada job board.

Education and Skills

If you are considering a career as a water quality technician, you should have a strong interest in:

Mathematics
Biology
Physics
Chemistry

In most cases, the minimum education requirement is a college technical diploma. A high school diploma may be sufficient for some jobs if on-the-job training is provided (dependent on job type and employer).

If you are a post-secondary student considering a career as a water quality technician, the following programs are most applicable:

Chemistry
Environmental Technology
Environmental Science
Pure and Applied Science

In most provinces, water quality technicians must be certified by their provincial association. This certification is transferable between provinces. For more information on certification, visit the Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists.

To work in water treatment plants, certification in water treatment and distribution, depending on the classification of the plant, is required.

Additionally, our EP Certification may be considered an asset for jobs in water quality.

Skills

Hard/ Technical Skills (skills obtained through formal education and training programs)

Waste management
Facilities management
Awareness of municipal, provincial and federal water regulations
Preventative maintenance
Operating heavy-duty equipment (e.g., forklifts and water pumps)

Soft Skills (personal attributes and characteristics)

Work independently
Manual dexterity
Oral and written communication
Ability to work outdoors for long periods
Problem solving
Detail oriented

Role Models

Paul Baker

Paul Baker loves the variety in his work. "The great thing is that I'm never stuck in one thing for too long," says Paul of his job as Environment Officer/Water Quality Technician for the Government of Prince Edward Island. Paul's fascination with the environment and clean water started early: "I've always had an interest in the environment, going back to when I was growing up. I used to do a lot of hunting and fishing." He pursued his interest by studying in the environmental technology program at Holland College.

When he graduated, he took a series of contracts before finding permanent employment. Paul has been a permanent employee with the PEI government since 1989 and still looks forward to getting to work every day. Not that it's all easy. Much of Paul's work is related to the testing and certification of household wells. Property owners must produce a clean water certificate for mortgage lenders or purchasers. Paul's office processes requests for more than a 1,000 of these certificates per year and he's often faced with tight deadlines and difficult water problems. To solve the more difficult problems, he often visits a site seven or eight times. What kind of testing does he do? "We check for bacteria.

We look for surface water bacteria, contamination, total coliform. And then we look at e-coli, which is from animal or human waste. In addition, we look at the chemistry of the water and check 16 or 17 parameters-nitrates, the hardness of the water, chloride, sodium, manganese and so on." Paul says his job requires a good understanding of groundwater and how it works. "You need to know how wells work, septic systems are a big part of it. I think good communication skills are important because I deal with numerous people. Some are quite interesting. Others can be up in arms and frustrated with their problems."

Your Impact

Water is necessary to sustain life. When water is contaminated, however, it poses a human health risk and a danger to ecosystems in rivers, lakes, and oceans. The role of a water quality technician is therefore essential to ensuring water for humans and our environment.

This is a very versatile occupation that varies from working at water treatment plants installing and monitoring the equipment that removes contaminants from the water to performing a range of simple and complex lab tests and analyzing and creating reports on the contents of various water sources. The purpose of a water quality technician is not where you are placed to work, but rather, the end results of clean water and environmental awareness.

Water quality technicians also routinely monitor compliance with federally and provincially mandated water quality requirements. Jobs within this occupation are mainly found in government positions or in industrial facilities.

Canadians are fortunate to have numerous systems in place to ensure that the living environment is safe, and water quality technicians play a vital role every day. It is the meticulous and focused work of water quality technicians that allows us to take for granted that the water we drink and use for different purposes is safe.

One way you may see a water quality technician at work is when a Drinking Water Advisory (DWA) needs to be resolved. In Canada, a DWA is put in place as a precautionary measure when it is believed that drinking water may have traces of chemical or bacterial contaminants.

One of the few occupations that can directly resolve this problem is a water quality technician. In this role, you ensure that households have access to clean drinking water and are not at risk of being exposed to dangerous or life-threatening contaminants.

Occupational Classification

Individuals employed as water quality technicians may be classified in one or more of the following occupational groupings:

NOC Code: 9243 – Water and Waste Treatment Plant Operator

NOC Code: 7442 – Waterworks and Gas Maintenance Workers

What is a NOC Code?

The National Occupation Classification (NOC) provides a standardized language for describing the work performed by Canadians in the labour market. It gives statisticians, labour market analysts, career counsellors, employers and individual job seekers a consistent way to collect data, describe and understand the nature of work within different occupations.

The NOC is developed and updated in partnership with Statistics Canada to coincide with the 5- year census cycles. It is based on in-depth occupational research and consultations conducted across Canada, to reflect changes in the Canadian labour market.