In a small town in southern Vermont, not far from the lauded ski slopes of Okemo, there's water gushing out of the back of a treatment facility.

For Chris Hughes, the assistant water and wastewater operator for the towns of Cavendish and Proctorsville, it's just another problem and another day on the job. This time, he's pretty sure a lightning strike disrupted the water treatment process. Other times, it's a build-up of iron in the system, a missing manhole cover, or an influx of "flushable" wipes, which he says routinely gum up the system. "I haven't had a lot of jobs, but it is by far the most interesting job that I've ever had," he told NPR during a tour of the facilities. "And so you have to … you have to like it. You have to kind of care."

Hughes is a master at fixing whatever's br

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