Elisa Williams serves as director of treatment operations, Water, for TOHO Water Authority, where she oversees water treatment operations, water quality programs and strategic initiatives supporting regulatory compliance and operational excellence. With more than 20 years of experience in the water and wastewater industry, she has built a reputation for developing sustainable operational systems, strengthening workforce capabilities and advancing proactive utility management practices. Elisa is a strong advocate for leadership development, knowledge retention and the role of human infrastructure in ensuring long-term utility resilience.
There is a conversation happening across the water sector that rarely makes it into leadership lean-ins, procurement meetings, or capital improvement plans. It is not about membrane filtration technology, PFAS compliance timelines, or the latest SCADA upgrades. It is about people—the operators, supervisors and technicians who show up before dawn, make real-time decisions on treatment processes and carry decades of institutional knowledge that no software platform can replicate.
After more than 20 years in water and wastewater treatment plant operations, I have seen firsthand how the condition of a utility's workforce culture is as predictive of system performance as any infrastructure rating. The utilities that consistently deliver safe, reliable water, regardless of aging infrastructure, tightening regulations, or budget constraints, share one common denominator. They have invested deliberately in their people.
The Invisible Infrastructure Gap
The American water and wastewater sector faces a welldocumented infrastructure gap measured in trillions of dollars of deferred pipe and plant replacement. What is less often quantified is the workforce gap running parallel to it. A significant share of experienced water and wastewater operators will reach retirement age within the next decade. The operational knowledge those individuals carry—the understanding of how a specific well field behaves in a drought year, or why a particular filter run time needs adjustment in summer—cannot simply be uploaded into a training module.
Succession planning in the water sector has historically been reactive. A veteran operator announces retirement and a utility scramble to transfer knowledge in the final months. The costs of this approach—in compliance risk, operational inefficiency and staff morale—are real and largely invisible on a balance sheet until something goes wrong.
What High-Performing Utilities Do Differently
The utilities I have observed and worked alongside that perform at the highest level tend to approach workforce development with the same structured intentionality they apply to asset management. Several practices stand out:
• Structured mentorship programs that formally pair junior operators with experienced staff, not as shadowing exercises, but as defined knowledge-transfer relationships with documented milestones.
• Operator-led process improvement opportunities where frontline staff are given structured channels to identify operational inefficiencies. This builds ownership and surfaces insights that management rarely sees from the top down.
• Investment in certification pathways and career development programs that signal to employees their longterm value within the organization. Employees who see a future within the organization are more likely to remain engaged, pursue professional growth, and contribute to long-term organization success.
In water and wastewater treatment operations, culture is not a soft concept. It is an operational variable. A team with a strong safety culture catches the near-miss before it becomes a regulatory event. A team with strong communication norms ensures the morning shift knows exactly what the overnight crew observed. A team that feels valued and sees a future in the organization brings discretionary effort to the work that is impossible to mandate.
“The future of the water and wastewater industry will not be determined solely by the infrastructure we build but by the people we prepare to operate, maintain and improve it.”
Over two decades, the most significant operational improvements I have been part of were not driven by capital investment alone. They were driven by operators who understood the why behind the process, supervisors who created space for questions and organizations that treated their workforce as infrastructure worth maintaining.
A Call to Prioritize the Human Side of the System
As the industry navigates aging infrastructure, emerging contaminants, climate pressures and workforce transitions, technology will continue to play an important role. However, no sensor, treatment process, or analytics platform can replace a skilled workforce capable of interpreting information and making sound operational decisions.
The future of the water and wastewater industry will not be determined solely by the infrastructure we build but by the people we prepare to operate, maintain and improve it. The most resilient utilities of the future will be those that invest in their human infrastructure with the same discipline and commitment they apply to their physical assets. The return on that investment is not always visible in a quarterly report. But it shows up every day in the water that reaches the tap.
