ADVANCEMENT OF THE SCIENCE
frequently reported race was White (91.4%), followed by Asian (4.4%), Native American or Alaska Natives (2.0%), Black or African American (1.5%), and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (0.7%). Furthermore, 4.2% of respondents reported being Hispanic. Increasing the diversity of the decentralized workforce represents a timely and important education and training opportunity. Employment Characteristics The results of our survey indicate that respondents are highly experienced in decentralized wastewater and distributed water reuse. The largest group of respon- dents reported >30 years of work experience in the industry (21.6%), and nearly one half (45%) had at least 20 years of experi- ence (Figure 1). The second largest group of respondents, however, reported entering the profession only within the last 5 years (16.8%). Respondents in other age groups were fairly evenly distributed. The survey also asked professionals about their retire- ment plans; we found that 37.0% of respon- dents plan to retire within the next 5 years. This percentage is higher than the num- ber of environmental health professionals (26.0%) who were asked the same question during the UNCOVER EH initiative, which only examined environmental public health professionals working in health departments (Gerding et al., 2019). Nearly one half of the professionals surveyed worked in the business sector (47.5%), while 34.9% were employed by governments at the federal, state, local, or territorial levels (Figure 2). The remaining professionals were employed by academic institutions (10.4%) or non- governmental organizations (7.3%). The decentralized wastewater and dis- tributed water reuse workforce represents a variety of dierent occupations, which was reflected by the diversity of professionals who responded to the survey (Figure 3). The most commonly reported job types included engineer (15.4%), environmental health professional (13.0%), installer (12.2%), and designer (9.8%). The survey included, however, representation from all occupa- tions in the industry, from educators and researchers to professionals focused on the design, installation, maintenance (including pumpers), and regulation of onsite systems. Moreover, onsite and distributed water reuse
FIGURE 1
Years of Experience of Professionals Working in Decentralized Wastewater and Distributed Water Reuse
2 5
2 0
1 5
1 0
0 5
6 – 1 0
1 1 – 1 5
1 6 – 2 0
2 1 – 2 5
2 6 – 3 0
> 3 0
≤ 5
Y ears in the Prof ession
FIGURE 2
Employers of Professionals Working in Decentralized Wastewater and Distributed Water Reuse
Business/ C onsul tancy L ocal G ov ernm ent State G ov ernm ent
F ed eral G ov ernm ent T erritorial G ov ernm ent Acad em ic I nstitution Nong ov ernm ental O rg aniz ation
Education Professionals in the decentralized wastewater and distributed water reuse workforce vary in their level of higher education attained. The
professionals earn a wide range of salaries. The three most common salaries reported were ≥$145,000 (9.9%), $95,000–$104,999 (9.5%), and $65,000–$74,999 (9.3%).
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Volume 86 • Number 5
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