On Tuesday, April 25, Jason Meier from the South Fort Collins Sanitation District spoke about waterwaste treatment in Fort Collins to Earth System Science students in the Roundhouse. 

Meier got into the water waste business at only 20 years old and started as maintenance staff. He then started testing for his water waste treatment license, a license required to become an operator of wastewater treatment plants. 

When Meier first started at the Sanitation District, the facility was using chlorine to treat the water for final disinfection. Now, the facility uses UV light.

“I always thought that I would do something with the environment,” says Meier. “And it kind of is in a sense. We’re surrounded by all Fossil Creek open space and we can look to the mountains, so it’s just a really nice place to be.”

After working for so long in the water treatment industry, many interesting things have been found in the facility.

“There’s always adventures to be had,” says Meier. “Right before I started, there was somebody trying to counterfeit money in the area. And so they caught a bunch of fake money on the bar screen.”

Lots of children’s toys and sometimes even cell phones are flushed by people, then found in the bar screen of wastewater facilities. 

Meier also had the opportunity to help rescue two owls from the treatment facility. 

“We had an owl we’ll get into one of our treatment bases, I called the Rocky Mountain raptor program. And they came in and cleaned it up and kept it for a month or two. Then they brought it back out to Fossil Creek and they let it go,” Meier says. 

Wastewater treatment facilities are always looking for new workers. Meier encourages young people to consider wastewater treatment for future work.

“If TikTok doesn’t work out, keep wastewater treatment in the back of your mind, because it’s something that you can always fall back on,” says Meier. 

The South Fort Collins Sanitation District is located at 2560 E County Rd 32, Fort Collins, CO.