Will AI replace Water/Wastewater Engineers?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
49/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 79% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 84% of the work
What the job involves
Design or oversee projects involving provision of potable water, disposal of wastewater and sewage, or prevention of flood-related damage. Prepare environmental documentation for water resources, regulatory program compliance, data management and analysis, and field work. Perform hydraulic modeling and pipeline design.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(24)
- Review and critique proposals, plans, or designs related to water or wastewater treatment systems.
- Design domestic or industrial water or wastewater treatment plants, including advanced facilities with sequencing batch reactors (SBR), membranes, lift stations, headworks, surge overflow basins, ultraviolet disinfection systems, aerobic digesters, sludge lagoons, or control buildings.
- Design or select equipment for use in wastewater processing to ensure compliance with government standards.
- Design pumping systems, pumping stations, pipelines, force mains, or sewers for the collection of wastewater.
- Conduct feasibility studies for the construction of facilities, such as water supply systems, runoff collection networks, water and wastewater treatment plants, or wastewater collection systems.
and 19 more
Out of reach(4)
- Provide technical direction or supervision to junior engineers, engineering or computer-aided design (CAD) technicians, or other technical personnel.
- Evaluate the operation and maintenance of water or wastewater systems to identify ways to improve their efficiency.
- Analyze and recommend chemical, biological, or other wastewater treatment methods to prepare water for industrial or domestic use.
- Oversee the construction of decentralized or on-site wastewater treatment systems, including reclaimed water facilities.
Also called
Wastewater Engineer · Water Resources Engineer · Consulting Engineer · County Engineer · Engineer · Project Development Engineer · Dimensional Engineer · Hydraulics Engineer
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics