Craft Technician
It’s 7.30am Monday morning, I get into my Northumbrian Water van and arrive at the Washington Dept for around 8.00am. I go to the depot on a Monday morning to collect my clean overalls and pick up my weekly work plan, otherwise I normally head straight to my first site from home. I look at my work plan for the week, which seems to be pretty straight forward and head to the first job.
My first job is a failed compactor at a sewage treatment works (this is a long tube which compresses the screens of all solid matter from the sewerage). The pump had been temporarily fixed over the weekend. When I arrive on site, I sign in, do my risk assessment and put on the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) required to do the job safely and unload the gear from the back of my van. I then start work on repairing the faulty motor. I find that I require some assistance from a fitter, so I give my Team Leader a call to organise it. The job takes us an hour and a half. I load my tools back into the van, disinfecting them, I change my overalls and shoes as my next job is at a water treatment site.
It takes me about 15 minutes to get to my next job. I have some planned maintenance to do. To start with I need to calibrate a colour monitor (a water quality measuring device). I sign in, then find the Operations Team Leader of the site and tell him why I’m there and what I have to do, I also ask him to stop the chemical dosage whilst I work on the monitor. I consult the company calibration manual which is the step by step guide for this particular kit. I do my risk assessment and put on my PPE. The job takes me about an hour. I then have my lunch.
After lunch just about to start my next job, when I get a call from my Team Leader to say that there has been a mains supply failure at a sewage treatment works. I get there and sign in. I investigate the nature of the failure and check to see whether it’s an electricity company supply failure or Northumbrian Water’s equipment. After I’ve done a risk assessment, I put on my PPE and check the electricity meter. It is actually a fault of the electricity company. I give them a call and explain the problem and ask for a time for restoration, they inform me it will take approximately two and a half hours. I contact the site Operations Team Leader to inform him and also my Team Leader as I will require a generator. My Team Leader informs me that a colleague can drop it off. My work mate arrives with the generator which I connect to the incomer, I start the generator to re-power the site. I then head back to the water treatment works to continue on the planned maintenance work. At 3.30pm I receive a call to say that the electricity supply has resumed so I head back to the wastewater treatment works to disconnect the generator and to ensure that the mains supply is on. I leave the generator on the site just in case the electricity fails again. I leave to go home at 4.00pm, getting home around 4.30pm.
I am on standby that evening. I receive a phone call from the Control Room at 9.15pm saying that there are no pumps available at a site. I change into my work clothes and log on to the lone working system via my mobile phone. I travel to site, sign in, do my risk assessment, put on my PPE and update the lone working system that I have arrived on site. I find that there are multiple failures of the three pumps which are blocked. I disconnect and swap two of the three and make another spin in the opposite direction (reverse magnetic field). This takes me a couple of hours. I’m tired when I get home but satisfied that the customers in the area will have drinking water when they get up on Tuesday morning.