Ninety-four percent of college professors consider themselves to be above average teachers. Statistically, of course, only fifty percent are. Students are not quite so high on themselves: seventy percent of high school seniors give themselves “above average leadership skills.”
Another study. Notwithstanding an 88 percent confidence level in their diagnosis, only 20 percent of surveyed doctors’ patients actually had pneumonia. Ouch!
Ninety percent of drivers rate themselves better than the typical driver. With my trifocal vision and unrelenting impatience, I am among the ten percent that acknowledges less than average driving skills. Meaning, next time we travel together, maybe you should drive.
People not only give ourselves higher marks than we deserve, we ignore information to the contrary. We’re twice as likely to seek out information that confirms our beliefs than listening to evidence that might disprove what we believe to be true.
What does this have to do with sewage treatment? Quite a lot, I think.
Much like teachers and doctors, wastewater superintendents don’t get a lot of realistic feedback on how we are doing. Sure, we have permits to meet. But, when compliance becomes difficult, we can always justify our inability to meet permit conditions by pointing to our aged equipment. The answer to most treatment problems is “facility upgrade.” Having trouble meeting permit? Contact the state. Government officials are willing to help.
The dirty little secret is this: many, many millions of dollars are wasted on unnecessary “facility upgrades.” Money spent on design and construction is – when warranted – money well spent. But when improvements can be made without multi-million dollar expenditures, doing so is –how do I say this in a politically correct way – a waste.
Seventy-five percent of treatment plants I recently visited can meet new permit requirements at one-fourth the cost of a facility upgrade. They do this by investing in process control changes, instrumentation, and very little equipment. That’s a seventy-five percent, multi-million dollar savings!
I hold wastewater superintendents in high regards. It is one of the most thankless, important and damn difficult jobs out there. But the fact is this: only half of us are better than average. Another, even more important fact: the very best one-percent of us is less than 100% skilled at everything we do. And, because it is so new, biological nutrient removal is something that few of us do really well.
How, I wonder, can it become okay for more superintendents to embrace process control modifications as a cost saving alternative to engineering fixes? I’ll keep looking for the answer to this one.
Thanks for reading.
Grant