AWWA Member Spotlight – John Young, Cherry Hill, New Jersey

This week’s AWWA Member Spotlight highlights John Young, retired chief operating officer for American Water, who has assisted troubled water and wastewater utilities for the past decade. Featured in the April 2023 issue of Journal AWWA, Mr. Young channels his expertise and envisions a successful future for water utilities in his article, “Troubled Utilities: Seeing the Way Forward.”

Professional background: I have been self-employed since 2010 when I retired from American Water to become the court-appointed receiver for the Jefferson County (Alabama) Environmental Services Department (wastewater system). While employed at American Water, I served in numerous engineering and operation positions including VP-Engineering, Chief Technology Officer, and President and Chief Operating Officer.

During the past 13 years, I have primarily assisted water and wastewater utilities that are challenged with regulatory compliance issues and require a management, technical and/or financial advisor. I also provide other water related consulting services and expert testimony.

Education/Certification: B.S., Civil Engineering, Duke University; M.S., Environmental Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Registered Professional Engineer

How and why did you get involved with the water industry? I have always been interested in protecting our environment. As an engineering student at Duke, I had part-time and summer jobs working to address both air and water pollution. I ended up focusing on water over air pollution because it was easier to collect samples from a stream than a hot stack sample port several hundred feet from the ground. During the late 1970s, there were significant regulatory advancements and engineering opportunities in the water industry.

What is an interesting project you’ve worked on? The cities of St. Joseph, Missouri, Davenport, Iowa, and Alton, Illinois, lost total water service during the same week in 1993 due to extensive flooding. The American Water team was able to construct temporary treatment facilities and reactivate the distribution systems to quickly restore service to each city. Ultimately, large treatment plants were designed and constructed at each location to ensure the reliability of future water service.

How did you end up focusing your career on troubled utilities? My career at American Water exposed me to hundreds of water utilities with different management and technical challenges. That experience, combined with my participation in professional organizations (AWWA, DBIA, NAWC, NDWAC, etc.), led to the federal and state courts requesting my assistance in solving the financial, corruption and regulatory issues associated with the Jefferson County ESD utility in Alabama. My exposure to bond investors during that assignment led me to help with utility financial issues in Detroit and financial and operational issues in PRASA (Puerto Rico). Recognizing the value I could provide and personal satisfaction I received from helping “troubled” utilities, I agreed to lead the recovery efforts in Flint, Michigan, and several other similar utilities over the past several years.

What’s the most impactful advice you’ve heard in your career? It is important to never lose focus on our primary responsibility within the water industry – to protect public health and safety. As we perform our daily tasks, it is easy to be consumed with short-term challenges and conflicting tasks. Strategic thinking and decision making become easier if we constantly remind ourselves how our decisions impact our customers’ and community’s well-being.

What is one of your proudest accomplishments? Building productive and successful teams to solve problems and successfully complete projects has always been very rewarding to me. Understanding what motivates individuals, treating people fairly and respectfully, building trust among team members, and aligning a team toward a common goal has been both challenging and rewarding. Everything I have accomplished during my career has been the result of working with talented, dedicated members of a multi-disciplined team.

How have you benefited from your AWWA membership? As a graduate student at UNC, I submitted my master’s thesis research for a presentation at ACE. The presentation was accepted, but I was not able to attend ACE without financial support. AWWA provided me the needed funds, and ultimately, I met my future employer at that conference and began my water career at American Water.

As my career advanced, AWWA also provided me extensive opportunities to work with very talented people as an officer at the section level and, at the national level, serve on numerous councils, committees and the board. I’ve been honored with both the Fuller and Abel Wolman awards.

What would surprise people to know about you? I have completed multiple marathons and competed in duathlons (run/bike/run). My family is also multi-generational in the water sector with my son, Matthew, being an engineer working for a major consulting firm. My granddaughter, Sadie, is also preparing to be an environmental scientist/engineer (pictured above, center).

What do you find rewarding about your work? Generally, “troubled” systems have regulatory and public health issues associated with failing infrastructure and mismanagement. Solutions are not straightforward given affordability issues, regulatory pressure and the political climate. The broad skillset required to help these “troubled” water utilities allows me to effectively use the knowledge I’ve accumulated from many others during my years in the water sector. While solutions to these issues may take decades to resolve, it is rewarding to help set a course of action that will hopefully rebuild trust in the utility while improving water service.

Why do you think young people should consider a career in water and how do we attract more young people to the water sector? A position in the water sector should be very attractive to young professionals. Our industry aligns well with the social values of their generation, generally provides a diverse and inclusive work environment, and offers a recession-proof occupation. It is also a profession that helps protect public health and safety, which provides personal job satisfaction and purpose. Therefore, in addition to our need to sell the value of water, we need to prioritize marketing careers in the water sector. Internship programs, recruitment of STEM students, retraining of military personnel and other creative options should be considered to ensure a quality and sustainable workforce in our sector.