Maintaining a city’s necessary function
Greg Graf tells his three young children his job is to clean water for the Brazos River Authority.
And maybe when they are older, they’ll come to realize just how important the plant maintenance crew leader is, not only to the BRA, but to those in the Sugar Land area.
Because the job is much more than cleaning water. Graf, 46, oversees four maintenance techs, and between the five of them, they ensure that the four wastewater treatment plants in Sugar Land continue to operate each day. These plants run 24-hours-a-day and seven days a week, so upkeep, maintenance, and repairs are imperative to ensure wastewater is continually treated for the area just southwest of Houston.
Wastewater is treated and discharged by the BRA at nine sewerage systems within the basin: Temple-Belton, Doshier Farm, Sugar Land North, Sugar Land South, Sugar Land New Territory, Sugar Land Greatwood, Clute-Richwood, Hutto Central, and Hutto South. The BRA’s effectiveness and confidence by its customers at these facilities continue to be a testament to operational capabilities and the exceptional work of its employees.
Graf joined the BRA as a temp in September 1997 in Sugar Land. The BRA began operating the Sugar Land Regional Sewerage System in 1975 to treat wastes from the city of Sugar Land, the Municipal Utilities District, the Nalco Chemical Company, and the Imperial Sugar Company. He’s now in what’s called Sugar Land North, where Graf is based and where the team huddles each morning before dispersing to the different plants.
Graf, who grew up in the area, said he recalls when the Sugar Land North office was in a part of town far from homes and businesses. Now, the plant is sandwiched between a Lowe’s, strip center, neighborhoods, and the roaring adjacent Interstate 59, while the Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital towers directly across the highway. To say the area has grown is an understatement, and with it, the number of facilities needed to treat its waste.
Wastewater is comprised of used water and wastes disposed of through plumbing fixtures from homes, industries and commercial establishments. Characteristics of wastewater change regularly, and so while part of the process is automated, it takes constant monitoring to ensure the correct levels are maintained to clean the water properly. When wastewater passes through a sewage plant, it undergoes a rigorous treatment process.
Graf became full time a few months after joining the BRA. He moved from maintenance tech to senior maintenance tech, and several additional promotions before becoming crew leader in 2009.
Graf said he considers himself a fair leader.
“I demand the best from the guys,” he said. “I call it on them when they don’t live up to that.”
Every day is different, and every day is a challenge, Graf said. It’s part of what’s kept him with the BRA all these years. Graf said his team of maintenance techs are a tight-knit crew, thriving on dry humor, an attribute he contributes to how well they get along together. If his team worked in an auto shop, they would be the ones in the back doing the major rebuilds. The crews replace and repair gearboxes and motors, regularly troubleshoot electrical issues, replace blowers, redo piping, replace lift pumps and on and on.
“The plant I office out of, Sugar Land North, the BRA built it in the ‘70s,” he said. “It’s an old plant, so it’s constantly needing work. All these plants entail a lot of maintenance. The plants we took over from other agencies were pretty worn down when we got them, so they are a different level of maintenance.”
Occasionally the crew hires outside contractors for a project, but for the most part, everything is done in-house, Graf said.
The team is licensed in wastewater treatment maintenance, take training in electrical work, learn to weld, and more, all while on the job, he said. The Sugar Land North plant has a maintenance garage the team uses for major work.
As with anything that requires maintenance, some of the routine work is daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. But there’s also those middle of the night emergencies when something breaks. The team rotates who is on call during the nights in case an alarm system notifies them that something has broken and needs attention.
“That makes maintenance all that much more important,” he said.
Graf meets with city of Sugar Land leaders at least once a week to discuss current projects as well as capital improvement projects for the different plants. He said the working relationship with city leaders has been great over the years.
The city even recently posted a reminder to its social channels that there are certain things you don’t flush down the toilet. The reminder is appreciated, Graf said, as there’s been a recent uptick in clogged pipes and pumps at the plants. Too many people have been treating toilets as trash cans. Giant wads of hair, “flushable” wipes, diapers, paper towels, cotton balls, medicine, and more are filtered out at the plant. Sometimes, however, the wads get so bad they cause problems. The only thing that should be flushed down a toilet is the three P’s: pee, poop and (toilet) paper.
“A lot of people use the toilet for trash,” Graf said. “They don’t know where it goes. For them, it’s out of sight, out of mind. But it causes problems.”
Sugar Land has been home to Graf almost all his life. Two sisters live in the area, and his parents are five miles away. Graf and his wife, who married in 2004, have three children: 13, 11, and 5.
Maintaining a wastewater treatment plant is a dirty job. When asked if the family ever complains about any lingering smell on his person after spending the day at the plant, Graf said, no.
Not because the stench isn’t there. But because he showers and changes clothes before heading home each day.
And he leaves those work boots at the office.