Wastewater treatment is entering the digital age, and many of today’s Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) — also called Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs) — rely on the latest technologies to operate safely, efficiently, and compliantly.

This digital shift is already transforming day-to-day WWTP operations and management for many plants, helping staff make informed decisions about chemical dosage, blower setpoints, and more. And with an increasingly complex landscape of compliance requirements, extreme weather events, and skilled staffing shortages, WWTPs that have yet to make the digital leap sometimes struggle to keep up.

Meanwhile, new breakthroughs in AI for wastewater treatment now offer a major advantage to plants that make the digital shift, helping operators adapt to this shifting landscape while saving energy, lowering costs, and supporting staff.

Below, we discuss recent trends in wastewater treatment technology, including the latest data analytics and Artificial Intelligence tools that will define how water and wastewater operations develop over the next several years.

1. Breaking Down Data Silos Enables Plants to Operate Proactively Rather Than Reactively

Today, WWTPs often use data to inform plant operations and management, but that data may be siloed within their resource planning software, maintenance systems, lab samples, and sensors. Individually, each of these data sources can help operators react to changing wastewater and equipment conditions. 

But aggregating these separate data streams into one place helps operators speed up those reactions by surfacing early performance indicators that help WWTPs stay ahead of machine maintenance, chemical changes, and energy demands. 

Once data silos have been removed, AI can help turn existing data streams about what has happened and is happening at a particular plant into predictions about what will happen, allowing operators to proactively adjust energy and chemical usage, or anticipate machine repairs. 

For example, AI in wastewater treatment technologies can monitor what’s happening with ammonia levels in real time, compare them to current compliance requirements, and proactively recommend that operators adjust blower setpoints to ensure those levels remain compliant. Or, for plants that prefer an automated approach, these technologies may even automatically update setpoints based on real-time conditions, with no human intervention required. 

Watch the video below to see how WWTPs and WRRFs are using AI software like Jacobs’ Intelligent O&M to leverage predictive operations for wastewater treatment. 

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2. Data-Driven Power Management Is Driving Energy Costs Down

Wastewater treatment is energy-intensive, requiring tens or sometimes hundreds of thousands of kWh of electricity every day, leading to high operational costs. Meanwhile, these high energy demands also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. 

But predictive wastewater treatment technologies can help operators reduce energy usage without compromising safety or efficiency. This also allows plants to meet regional sustainability goals. 

For example, the Agua Nueva Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Pima County, Arizona used Intelligent O&M to identify opportunities to optimize blower setpoints, leading to a sustained 10-20% reduction in blower power usage and decreasing CO₂ emissions by over 1,000 lbs. 

“We were using 2000 kWh of electrical per million gallons [7.57 kWh/m³]  we treated and we’re now down to the low 1500s [roughly 5.7 kWh/m³]… if we are able to optimize those with higher and lower [Dissolved Oxygen levels] where we’re not running them as much, it causes our electrical cost to go way down.” 

Timothy Mason,
Operations Manager, Agua Nueva Wastewater Treatment Plant 

3. AI for Wastewater Treatment Is Helping Operators Optimize Chemical Dosage

Chemical dosing is also a major expenditure for WWTPs, so reducing disinfectant or coagulant dosages can lead to significant cost savings. However, plants often keep dosages higher than may be necessary because safety and compliance are so important. 

Predictive AI can help optimize these dosage decisions to meet safety and compliance thresholds while reducing costs and saving resources. These wastewater treatment technologies can send automated dosage recommendations based on up-to-date information from labs and sensors, so operators can confidently adjust dosage while maintaining compliance. 

For example, a plant in Wilmington, DE, was able to save around $250,000 per year in chemical costs after implementing smart wastewater management. By analyzing historically effective dosages, including during stormy conditions, Intelligent O&M was able to deliver multiple daily push notifications with updated dosage recommendations based on real-time weather station data. Because operators no longer had to exceed the necessary dosage out of an abundance of caution, they were able to reduce chemical usage by 20 percent. 

4. Staffing Challenges Require Smarter Wastewater Management Training

Staffing has also been a consistent challenge for WWTPs in recent years. Though some new hires may have specialized skills thanks to university or vocational programs, many new operators rely on on-the-job training to develop the skills needed to successfully operate a plant. Before a new staff member can operate successfully with minimal oversight, they must spend months learning the ins and outs of optimal operations. 

This challenge is often exacerbated by the complex, decentralized digital systems that plants use to track and update chemical dosage, blower setpoints, and more. Meanwhile, as compliance regulations become more stringent, these systems must also become more sophisticated to meet these objectives. With all this added complexity, onboarding can be a lengthy and difficult process, as new operators learn the intricacies of these advancing technologies. 

AI can help bridge the gap between an employee’s current skillset and these highly sophisticated wastewater management systems. With predictive recommendations delivered directly to a smartphone or tablet, new operators get the guidance they need to work from day one. Meanwhile, senior staff can devote more time and attention to managing overall plant performance and optimizations. 

Because technologies like Intelligent O&M deliver recommendations based on historical plant performance, new hires can immediately start learning best practices based on institutional knowledge that may otherwise be lost when more veteran staff leave the workforce. 

To learn more about how AI can help with WWTP staffing, watch our webinar, Outsmarting the Skilled Staffing Shortage at Water Treatment Plants.  

Outsmarting the Skilled Staffing Shortage at Water Treatment Plants

In this webinar, discover how predictive analytics can help you onboard staff faster, operationalize best practices for your specific plant, and equip operators with the tools they need to succeed.

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5. Digital Tools Help Reduce Maintenance Costs While Protecting Safety

Leveraging AI to analyze historical and current data from maintenance systems can also help operators or maintenance teams schedule repairs, extend the lifespan of their machines, and reduce maintenance costs over time.  

For many WWTPs, maintenance is reactive; staff may only know a machine needs repairs or replacement when it breaks. This can even force a plant to pause treatment, reduce output, or compensate with increased chemical dosages. 

Limitations with available staff, skillsets, and budgets can also compound these challenges, forcing maintenance managers to prioritize only the highest priority work orders. 

Using historical data to automate and schedule ongoing machine maintenance allows plants to be proactive rather than reactive, avoiding the complications caused by broken or malfunctioning machinery. 

The Combined Impact of AI in Wastewater Treatment

By ingesting millions of datapoints from previously siloed data streams, AI for wastewater treatment is helping plants optimize chemical and energy usage, improve reliability, keep machinery working consistently, and bridge the skilled staffing gaps many WWTPs are facing. For these reasons, we expect to see more and more plants adopt smart wastewater management technologies in 2025 and beyond. 

For more information on how smart wastewater management technologies are changing how WWTPs operate, check out our webinar on Using Digital O&M Tools to Solve Your Top 3 Challenges in Wastewater Management.