The Wastewater Enthusiast

This Wednesday the 25th is gonna be a big day for the channel! First at 11AM PST I will be hosting the livestream for Chief Operator members. We will talk about violations and a Q&A for members. THEN in the afternoon I’m heading to another wastewater plant to film a video on sludge thickening, anaerobic digestion, and dewatering! That video will probably be edited and ready to post in a few weeks, and that’s gonna be open for everyone. Those of you who join the member live stream will get a sneak peak into which specific plant I’m traveling to, and the specifics of what the video will cover. Hope to see you there!

6 days ago | [YT] | 22

The Wastewater Enthusiast

Hey Everyone! I’ve been chatting with the Ops Cert folks at Water Environment Federation and they want you to know that there is $5000 up for grabs through the WEF Operator Scholarship!

The WEF Operator Scholarship application period is open now through March 31. It provides up to $5000 for individuals to enter or advance within the field of Water/Wastewater operations (i.e. Free money for operator training, education, certification)

A couple things to note: If you are new to the water/wastewater sector (worked 12 months or less in water), if awarded the scholarship you will also receive a WEF and WEF Member Association membership.
If you have worked in the water/wastewater sector for more than 12 months, you need to be a current WEF Member to be eligible.

Additional Information including a helpful FAQ and the link to apply can be found at www.wef.org/OpScholarship

I’ll also put out a short video sometime soon to promote this for further reach. Good luck!

1 week ago | [YT] | 32

The Wastewater Enthusiast

Ok everyone the Wastewater Grades 4 and 5 / Class A exam prep is formatted and ready to roll! I start streaming at 12 PM PST tomorrow Thursday Feb 12 here on YouTube. I’m expecting this one to take about an hour and a half. This session is FREE and open to EVERYONE! As always you can catch the replay if you can’t make the livestream.

I was reading some of the questions to Matt over at ‪@OperatorMindset‬ yesterday and he can vouch for how hard I made these. Why I did it this way is to get you an idea of what it’s gonna be like in the hot seat on exam day.

We will start with some tips for essay questions, move into a series of about 40 multiple choice practice questions, and then 5 of the hardest math questions I could come up with.

Hope to see you there!

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 21

The Wastewater Enthusiast

A little sneak peek for next week's video: my latest installment of "How To Get Certified" State by State will be Arizona! It was a lot of fun to work with ADEQ and I'm super stoked to get that one up on the channel Monday morning. Several of you have asked for me to do your State next so I'll put it up to a vote. Which State should be next?

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 12

The Wastewater Enthusiast

Ok Wastewater Grades 4 & 5 / Class A exam takers, your exam prep is next! I plan on presenting this live on Thursday Feb 12 at 12PM Pacific Time here on YouTube. This is free and open to everyone as usual. If you can’t make it, the replay will be open to everyone as well. We will go through multiple choice, a little essay writing coaching (for those who still have to do that), and a cluster of math problems. The main focus will be the multiple choice. The math is only slightly more difficult than the Grade 3 / Class B test. I often hear how caught off guard people are for the conceptual portion of these higher level tests. Hope to see you there!

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 32

The Wastewater Enthusiast

I’m doing a FREE 1 hour webinar on Pumps, Motors, and Valves in Wastewater Treatment on February 10 from 8:15-9:15 AM Pacific Time. This will be on the TrainingLink platform. I have linked to it below. This is open to everybody and I wanted to make all of my viewers and anybody who might come across this post aware. Hope to see you there!

www.dkf-traininglink.com/registration-link/webinar…

4 weeks ago | [YT] | 33

The Wastewater Enthusiast

For anybody who is a Chief Operator level member, your monthly livestream is scheduled at 12PM tomorrow 1/27! We will be talking about my primary clarifier issues and how I’m running the plant while it’s down. I’ll also discuss some behind the scenes things that happened the first 2 weeks of 2026 when it felt like everything was breaking, and how we pivoted here at the plant to keep things going and in compliance. I think I’ll be on for about 30 mins and the replay will be available for those who can’t make it. See you then!

1 month ago | [YT] | 20

The Wastewater Enthusiast

Some fun happenings going on at The Wastewater Enthusiast: I purchased the domain wastewaterenthusiast.com, .net, and .org! I also have a new email: shawn@wastewaterenthusiast.com so email me there for anything longer than a typical YouTube comment! If you put the website in your browser, I have it set up to forward traffic directly to my YouTube channel right now while I figure out what exactly I want to do with the website. I dunno…maybe an online academy one day? 🤔😉

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 40

The Wastewater Enthusiast

70 of you voted and a vast majority selected that our first Wastewater Terminology prep be just the Grades I & II/Class C! This will be happening LIVE this Thursday the 22nd at 12PM Pacific Time. This is FREE and open to everyone. Can’t make it? The replay will be available to watch free for everyone immediately after I am done live streaming. We will do the Grade III/Class B Terminology in March. I’ve been building the February Grades IV & V / Class A exam prep (aiming for the 3rd week of February). That one’s gonna be a doozy!

1 month ago | [YT] | 28

The Wastewater Enthusiast

As I build next week’s Wastewater Terminology Exam Prep I’m seeing I can go one of two ways with it. I can either do one long livestream that covers grades 1 through 3 terminology, or I could do two smaller streams. In that scenario, next week would cover grades 1 and 2 (entry level) and then grade 3 (journey level) at a later time, probably in March. Which would you prefer? Vote below!

1 month ago | [YT] | 11