Shared Failures: Uniting Four Career Pathways to Overcome Decentralized Wastewater Workforce Challenges in Limited-Resource Rural Communities

Persistent sanitation gaps in limited-resource rural communities across the United States continue to hinder progress toward national sustainable development goals. Addressing these communities' wastewater needs has led to a substantial rise in decentralized wastewater systems (DWSs). However, the ongoing nationwide workforce crisis threatens the effectiveness of these systems' management, including operation and maintenance (O&M). Current literature narrowly frames workforce challenges as labor shortages, overlooking critical and deeper systemic issues. Consequently, policy-informed environmental workforce strategies remain a pressing national need. Here, we develop an integrated cross-pathway approach for achieving sustainable decentralized wastewater workforce development by investigating the root causes of both shortages and shortcomings that emerge across four interconnected career pathways: academic, regulatory, professional, and skilled trade. Through theoretical thematic analysis of 30 semistructured interviews with stakeholders across rural Alabama's Black Belt, we uncover how misaligned expectations, disconnected responsibilities, and siloed institutions collectively erode the capacity of the DWS workforce. Our findings highlight targeted policy interventions, including state administrative code reforms to promote performance-based regulation, mandate proactive O&M, and strengthen state-led, community-driven engagement. By exposing how fragmented career pathways undermine effective DWS governance in limited-resource rural communities, this work joins ongoing efforts to address complex environmental problems and advance sustainable development.