Meet the Mechanical and Electrical Journeyman Trainees

The Journeyman Trainees work alongside other mechanical and electrical team members to provide critical maintenance, repairs, and modifications of equipment at the Northern Treatment Plant (NTP) and Robert W. Hite Treatment Facility (RWHTF). The Journeyman Program includes two training tracks for Mechanical Industrial Technician (MIT) and Electrician/Instrumentation Technician (EIT). 

MIT trainees take care of, fabricate, and repair equipment. Their days include welding, machining, pipefitting, and millwright work. For one recent project, they fabricated recirculation tanks and retrofitted 20 mixed liquor recycle (MLR) pumps with these tanks to conserve and reuse water. 

EIT trainees work mostly on preventive maintenance for power supplies, pumps, and generators. Their work also maintains specialized equipment like sensors on variable frequency drives, which allow plant operators to remotely monitor motors that use these drives. 

Journeyman Trainees complete a four-year learning program that combines on-the-job training, college courses, and additional outside training to obtain the skills necessary to progress into a MIT/EIT position.  

All of them consider Metro’s Journeyman Trainee program to be a great opportunity people do not come across often. They know they will always have work to do as they help to incorporate new technologies into RWHTF’s aging equipment. 

The Journeyman Trainees are Zakkery Hopkins, Tony Balcazar, Travis Sargent, Brennan Zimbelman, Cameron Rose, Wyatt Herbert, and Leroy Canterbury (left to right, Jordan Padilla not pictured).