Depends on your starting time!

There are a couple options (see LANL.gov/careers/transportation).

The NMDOT Park and Ride is what you're after, it's $150 a month or $6 each way.

The big problem is that is arrives near TA03 after most of ALDWP 's start time, arriving at 6:10ish. If you have a flexible start time, then you should be good.

The other option is joining one of LANL's sponsored van/carpools. You can talk with your group to see if one exists.

Depending on your job, it may or may not be feasible.

Howdy u/catatonic-surrender! Congrats on retiring!

Feel free to give me a DM and we can chat - I was also a MM who transitioned into wastewater, trust me, you're making a hell of a good decision and your skills will be invaluable.

If you don't feel comfortable with that, I'll just say that yes, you should be in the upper band of the unlicensed position but remember, personality and fit within the org matters. Likewise, the agency may decide to hire a true greenhorn over you to ensure they stick around longer and can be trained specific to their needs and demands. I've personally passed over more technically-experienced personnel before for those reasons.

-Das

Ooh, r/goblincore would LOVE this. 💚

Is the carbon air scrubber receiving enough moisture? If the bacteria in the scrubber are not getting enough they will die off and not be as effective. Likewise, verify your scrubber isn't designed to be nutrient fed to reduce odor. I personally loathe these as the nutrients are expensive and finicky to dose, but they work well at odor removal.

Alternatively you can look at adding precoated media that has nutrients on it - my old facility had a ECS dual-media filter with it and it worked GREAT.

I looked around with my contacts and didn't see anyone that would be too much of help - mostly industrial world now. But you might want to reach out to Samantha Austin at Jacobs or the San Luis Obispo Cal Poly wastewater team, specifically Dr. Yarrow Nelson.

I'm not sure if either have specifically working with phenol control systems but I believe both have worked with your target bacteria.

Getting your foot in the door will be the hardest part of your career.

SocCal is incredibly competitive but also has a tremendous amount of staff and opportunities. Keep applying and don't stop. Networking, as with most jobs, is incredibly valuable and is recommended - go to local GRA, AWWA, Rural Water seminars if possible.

Likewise, no college degree is totally fine - BUT SoCal has some fantastic night classes at Community Colleges (Palomar, Cuyamaca, Imperial Valley, etc) that will really help in terms of knowledge and networking.

Construction is always applicable and show that you aren't afraid to get your hands dirty.

You can compete with people with biology, environmental, chemistry degrees - each background has a role and strength and weakness. Engineers are less likely - they're likely only serving to get their Grade Vs for their work, not to take your position.

Updated! For better visibility when you're shopping, we had a $700 increase from $1200/yr to $1900/yr in the Aspen Elementary area, rated "Moderate" risk per NMWRAP.

Hey Shawn good to see you on here!

As a heads up, the wastewater subreddit and discord are probably the best venues for your videos. This one definitely skews more consumer grade and for residential applications.

Jesus, sorry to that dude/ette.

What career transition are you looking at? Are you going to stay in the area?

Totally depends on your waste stream profile (reminder, don't disclose propriety waste streams online!).

If yours is on the far end of the pH spectrum, highly oxidizing, in a electrical or plating bath, or has a ton of chlorides I would go with titanium.

For municipal standard waste I would echo that SS is totally fine. I'd worry more about sun exposure than corrosion for instrumentation.

However, industrial or AOP or chemical solutions is a different story.

Worked Municipal for 6 years and then transferred over to industrial, working for a DoE contractor - so that said I don't know the private side nearly as much.

Municipal is normally a better work-life balance and a trade off in pay for better benefits, especially if you have a state pension (which I do after serving for 5 years).

Industrial wastewater varies greatly by your organization. I worked with peeps from Gallo (winery) and plastic manufacturing and industrial solvents - each had pros and cons their org.Some are super strict but safe while others are Batman-villain levels of danger.

Broad brush here but you can be paid more at an industrial facility, but the tradeoff is typically in the benefits area. I received a ~40% pay boost by switching from muni to industrial and with a great 401k.

I miss municipal side as I had a greater variety of roles (laboratory, operations, maintenance, reporting) and had greater responsibility for the facility buuuuuut it's hard to give up the pay bump.

Welp, looks like it did take effect.

Plutonium pay is getting an axe for several groups, mine included, effective next pay check.

$20k gone, but the hazard remains.

I'm sure any savings will find their way to Trump's oligarch friends in no time.

Wow, I must have just squeaked by with my GEICO insurance - we got a $500 increase and we're mildly shocked, but ate it. Just renewed two weeks ago.

Good luck to you! 🤞

Awesome information and thanks for mentioning the home renewal program, had not heard of that before!

You mentioned the TPO is rated for 20-25 years, does it require periodic touch ups or reseals? This is my first time with TPO and have a bunch of different recommendations.

Not quite, it's been working with the aforementioned workaround (sideloading and listing yourself as a developer). It's been the only reason I still use reddit on mobile.

Yep, read the sticky post but forgot about it being delisted. I've been side loaded this entire time but it has remained ad-free until now.

Thanks for the recommendation about Red reader. I'd prefer to keep BR but it's good to have a backup.

Excel is your friend! That's what we've used at our last two plants. Just plug in your standard formulas, tank dimensions, slap on a few charts, and voila!

If you need some help setting it up, DM me. I work industrial water now so don't have those forms anymore but can walk you through it.

Plenty of runners in the morning, especially along the main road at 5AM. I use to walk my pup at 0430 without issue, although there certainly are bears out during this time (mostly ransaking the trash).

Mountain-lions (and coyotes) are certainly present and would be more of a concern if you're out with your pup, but there's never been an incident of them going after people. I would not recommend a trail run before daylight though.

Heard back from the interview panel/management about 10 minutes after the interview, but a couple months (IIRC 2-3) for a written offer. HR approved my househunting trip out before the acceptance letter.

If your team has to go through HR for any approval, it can be pretty dreadful - the poor student interns get it even worse. I would try not to fret too hard, we're pretty notoriously slow.

The Sac State OWP Industrial Treatment book is a good first step to learning about it. That said, in the real world every plant is drastically different, depending on the waste stream they're receiving. A heavy metal plant differs from a plastic production plant differs from a automotive plant differs from a winery differs from chip fab. Vast majority of plants are physical and chemical separation, not biological. Honestly you'll see more similarity in surface water plants vs wastewater.

Your flow and process design are going to be based off of the production capacity of the facility your attached to, and how much of your stream is recycled for reuse. Additionally, your physical waste stream may be HIGHLY hazardous (including pyrophoric 🔥) and require specific permits and engineering safeguards.

Sadly I don't! I would defer to others expertise for home products, all my vendors don't make anything at this scale.

Oh fuck that Culligan guy, that's absurd. I wish I had a product to recommend you but that's not my area of expertise, IMO they're the same for the sake of treating water, all the rest is fluff and features.

Good luck with the research. While I don't have a specific recommendation, I would look for the least "sexy" one available. Big, accessible tanks with lots of piping and unions. If it looks like a Cybertruck or a blue mystery-box, steer clear because it's probably propriety and unnecessarily trendy.

Certified water and wastewater operator here. Sorry to hear about your nitrates. Out of curiosity, are you adjacent to farmland or have a septic system near the well?

I would not fuck with drinking that high of nitrates, especially for the miss or kids. You can look up "Blue Baby Syndrome" for why. That being said, I would not worry about non-drinking purposes, eg shower, bathroom sinks, etc.

Ultimately I would say it comes down to what you are you comfortable spending and how the family as a whole feels about the situation. If you have the space and about 3k, I would for a whole house system. Expect less than $300 yearly if you service it yourself (depending on TDS). If budget is an issue, you can absolutely go for a under sink RO unit and just use that for drinking. You can get perfectly fine ones for under $300 and install it yourself in less than an hour of discomfort.

I have no idea what companies are charging now for their sales, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear it's north of $5k and then add on absurd service costs. As a pro tip, you can service it just as well as they can for 1/10th the cost.

No matter what option you go with, get some leak detection pucks that send you notifications. They'll save your bacon and wallet. I have some govee ones and would recommend it.