What If No One Checks In? The Hidden Risk Facing Water Utility Technicians Working Alone
Table of Contents
Understanding lone work in the water industry
The reality: no legal requirement and limited budgets
The risks of doing nothing
The Shift: What forward-thinking utilities are doing
Making the case internally
Three key elements of an effective check-in message
The blind spot can be fixed
According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), more than 20% of workplace fatalities in the utility sector involve lone workers. Now imagine being injured at a remote water pump station with no way to call for help. That’s the daily reality for many water technicians working alone.
It’s a typical workday, and a water technician is off to perform routine maintenance on a rural water pump station. If they never checked in later and continued to work hours, would anyone know? Could this worker hurt themselves without anybody being aware of their location?
Many people in the water utilities sector work alone, performing high-risk tasks such as after-hours maintenance, pump station inspections, and confined space entries. Without federal legislation to protect them, water workers and lone workers are especially vulnerable to occupational dangers and require extra lone worker monitoring like SafetyLine when dealing with serious workplace hazards.
Understanding lone work in the water industry
To grasp the scale of the issue, it’s important to understand who these lone workers are and what their roles entail. Working alone in the water industry is very common and several water workers must regularly perform lone work in both rural and urban settings including field operators and technicians, water quality techs, confined-space entrants, water meter readers, rural well inspectors.
The American Water Works Association (AWWA) plays an important role in improving the safety of water utility workers, particularly in rural and underserved communities. Through advocacy, the AWWA supports increased funding, stronger regulations, and the development of programs focused on protecting workers in the water industry. It provides comprehensive guidelines, standards, and best practices designed to improve workplace safety and operational resilience. The association also offers specialized training, technical resources, and research to help utilities implement effective safety protocols. However, the AWWA is not a regulatory body and does not have the authority to enforce compliance with its recommendations; adoption is voluntary and typically encouraged through “industry leadership and peer benchmarking.”
Despite the risks, many jurisdictions lack the legal framework to ensure these workers are protected.
The reality: no legal requirement and limited budgets
Unlike Canada, the United States and its many jurisdictions do not have legislation or regulations in place requiring employers to monitor its lone workers through check-in procedures. Additionally, budgets are often tight, allowing teams to perform their work without check-in systems and lone worker monitoring solutions without much consequence or attention. Safety managers often carry much of this responsibility for lone-worker safety as well as the increased risk of neglecting to have a check-in system in place or to take any immediate steps when check-ins are missed during a shift.
The risks of doing nothing
If a water technician checks in with their company or safety monitor from a remote location requesting immediate assistance but the check-in is missed, this can result in major consequences such as delayed emergency response, increased liability for the company, as well as damaged trust between staff and leadership with increased staff turnover.
Examples of this can include workers who experienced an accident and tried checking in without any success and were found injured hours later; workers who passed out from toxic gases working in confined spaces; and water workers in remote areas who experienced communication blackouts and cannot connect with their employer or safety monitor.
The Shift: what forward-thinking utilities are doing
Despite the absence of federal lone worker legislation, there are proactive water companies that are choosing to act and implement safety solutions that automate check-ins and monitor the lone worker’s safety while at remote locations. The most common approaches and tools include smartphone apps, man-down detection, and satellite-linked devices for areas where cellular reception is limited or unavailable.
These tools often include GPS tracking, panic buttons, automatic alerts for falls or inactivity, and two-way communication features that allow workers to stay connected even in remote areas.
Water utility organizations– big and small, urban and rural – have a range of different, scalable safety monitoring tools currently available for every budget and team size. It has allowed water utility teams in both urban and rural settings to monitor multiple mobile workers at once, including any planned or scheduled check-ins.
Making the case internally
As you just read, there are many arguments in support of implementing and purchasing a lone worker check-in system – but there are also several strong areas to build a business case as well.
Incident data and near misses
The number of work incidents and near misses paint a compelling picture of the environment these water technicians are working in and the hazards they face on a regular basis.
Financial liability
Calculate the potential financial liabilities associated with downtime resulting from missed check-ins, accidents, or delayed emergency response. This includes lost productivity, compliance violations, and reputational damage. A single unresolved incident can disrupt workflows, delay projects, and lead to legal exposure.
Worker morale and retention
Emphasize how regular check-ins can strengthen safety culture and worker morale along with their safety, improving retention of skilled people and reducing staff turnover. This fosters a stronger safety culture, reduces stress among remote or isolated workers, and builds trust between frontline workers and management.
Mental health impact
Beyond physical safety, lone work can take a toll on mental health. Isolation, stress, and uncertainty can affect performance and well-being. Regular check-ins and safety protocols help reassure workers that they’re supported and valued, reducing anxiety and improving overall job satisfaction.
Cost comparison
Look at the approximate costs (financial, human, time) of preventative safety measures and solutions versus the costs of reacting when an incident or emergency occurs. Preventative measures like automated check-ins, emergency alerts, and safety training require significantly less time, money, and emotional toll than a work accident would cost.
Three key elements of an effective check-in message
When checking in with a lone worker safety app, water workers can send check-in messages that communicate information that could be crucial to a successful emergency response. There are three key pieces of information they need include:
1. Current Activity:
This should detail what the worker is currently doing and any potential risks or concerns.
2. Nearest landmark(s):
Information about nearby landmarks and geographical indicators can significantly benefit responders when locating a lone worker in an accident.
3. Work plan details:
Any information about the lone employee’s work plan is incredibly valuable when aiding a quick emergency response as well as anticipation of issues and accidents in the future.
The blind spot can be fixed
While this safety risk is significant, it can be addressed – and it does not have to break your budget. For companies with no check-in protocols or system in place, start small and begin with a manual check-in pilot program before looking at automated work alone solutions and lone worker apps. Start by introducing the habit of checking in regularly. Create a work environment and culture where that’s normal.
Industry leaders must ask themselves: Are we doing enough to protect those who protect our water? It’s time to prioritize lone worker safety—not just because it’s smart business, but because it’s the right thing to do.
When these people are working alone, making sure that our water is safe to drink, they need to be able to check in to let us know that they are ok. No matter what, if you’re not sure your lone workers are safe, it’s time to ask: What if no one checks in?