Far more than just filling job openings in an essential industry, Robert Keyes, CWD, is dedicated to developing the next generation of groundwater professionals.
The industry’s top concern in recent years will be a major focus for Keyes as the National Ground Water Association’s 2027 Board of Directors president. He will receive the president’s gavel in December at Groundwater Week 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“We need to reach young people earlier; strengthen our partnerships with schools, universities, vocational programs, and industry organizations; and create clearer pathways into groundwater careers,” said Keyes, president and CEO of Associated Industries in Norman, Oklahoma.
“Just as importantly, we need to develop and retain the talented people already within our industry.”
Skilled trades are slowly making a comeback in the United States due to the massive need for workers along with the younger generation bypassing college debt and choosing AI-proof careers.
This is encouraging because:
- The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics and the American Geosciences Institute project a 130,000 shortfall in the groundwater industry.
- The average age of a water well contractor or worker is 53 years old, according to the Water Systems Council. An estimated 48 percent of the industry’s workforce, almost half, is at or near retirement age (55 and older).
- The “Silver Tsunami” is impacting the country’s workforce with a record 4.2 million Americans that were set to turn 65 in 2025 and each year through 2027, according to the Alliance for Lifetime Income’s Retirement Income Institute.
Some of these retirees work in the groundwater industry, and Keyes has already been busy working to build the workforce from the ground up on the Young Water Professionals group of the Oklahoma Ground Water Association. His company sponsored the group’s first hands-on field event in June at the Associated Environmental Industries’ ranch in Purcell, Oklahoma.
Keyes’ company also made an industry recruitment video for NGWA that debuted at the Groundwater Week 2025 Delegates Meeting that has more than 20,000 views.
“What we have to do is paint a better picture of the groundwater industry — of what it really is,” said the 68-year-old Keyes who will be NGWA’s 76th president and first from Oklahoma to serve in the role.
“It’s an exciting industry, and it’s not a no-brainer, pick-and-shovel industry, but we’ve let the world paint it that way.”
Click here to read the full profile of Keyes in November's 2026 issue of Water Well Journal®.