Wastewater Treatment Plant Chief Operator pay range
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania · class code 97311
- Class code
- 97311
- Pay scale group
- ST 05
- Pay unit
- Year
- Bargaining unit
- J1
- State
- Pennsylvania
- The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania published pay range for Wastewater Treatment Plant Chief Operator is $46,827 to $70,592 per year.
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Administration keys this classification as class code 97311.
- This is the range the plan authorises, not the salary of any individual employee.
Class specification
The Commonwealth job specification for this class is published by Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Administration. The passages below are quoted from it as published, not paraphrased, and cut to their opening sentences; the full specification is the authority on duties and qualifications. It was last revised 01/01/2021.
What the state says the job is
This is skilled technical work in the operation and maintenance of large and complex wastewater treatment plants. An employee in this job has responsible charge and maintains plant operations to process wastewater in an environmentally safe and efficient manner according to standard operating procedures and regulatory requirements for large and complex plants, three or more plants, or plants that supply community wastewater treatment services. Work involves operating and maintaining motors, pumps, aerators, filters, digestors, chlorinators, flow meters and related equipment to control the flow and processing of wastewater; sustaining biological processes by adding air and nutrients to achieve natural self-purification processes, including coagulation of solids, oxidation, and nitrification; performing chemical tests of plant influent and effluent; and documenting and maintaining data reg ...
Examples of the work
• Serves as responsible charge operator for wastewater treatment plants. • Makes process control decisions regarding plant operation. • Develops standard operating procedures to be used by others to implement process control decisions. • Operates and maintains wastewater treatment, sludge processing, and disposal equipment and the collection and conveyance systems in a wastewater treatment plant to control flow and processing of wastewater. • Observes variations in operating conditions and reads meters, gauges, and test results to determine load requirements.
Minimum qualifications
• One year of experience as a Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator (commonwealth title); or • One year of experience in the operation and maintenance of a wastewater treatment plant.
Special requirements
• All positions require possession of a valid certification issued by the Pennsylvania State Board for Certification of Water and Wastewater System Operators as a wastewater treatment plant operator that is equal to or greater than the classification and subclassification of the wastewater system to ...
Quoted from the Commonwealth job specification, read 2026-10-21.
Where this comes from
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Administration publishes this figure in Classification and Pay Plan (online, current annual salary ranges). Every number on this page is read from that document; nothing is estimated, modelled or averaged.
The Commonwealth also links this class code to its own job title and specification. That page is the official description of the classification; this page publishes its pay range.
The listed pay scale is available in the Commonwealth's current ST schedule.