WCI offers an exciting and varied career for civil engineers who thrive on tackling diverse projects. From drainage systems for housing developments to flood risk assessments, the work is both demanding and rewarding. Our engineers are involved in every stage of the design process, from feasibility studies to navigating regulatory approvals and ensuring clients meet planning requirements.
Mike Niisato heads up the Consulting Engineering arm of WCI Group. With a passion for drainage solutions gained through a myriad of projects in the UK and Australia, Mike brings a wealth of experience to the team. We spoke to Mike to find out the kinds of projects he and our civil engineers work on and the key moments where they can make a real difference to clients. Whether they’re ensuring nutrient neutrality on a housing site or designing rural treatment works, each day brings fresh challenges and the opportunity to develop skills.
Mike, what was your route to becoming a Consulting Engineer at WCI?
I graduated from Plymouth University in 2005 with a BSc in Civil Engineering ready to take the first steps in my career as an engineer. My first stop, multi discipline engineering firm Campbell Reith in Redhill where I specialised in detailed design for infrastructure: think highways, foul and surface water drainage. Here I spent six years focussing on specifications and drawings for the design and construction of adopted highways (section 38), the changing of adopted highways (section 278) and the adoption of public sewers by water authorities (section 104). Essentially this means designing the necessary infrastructure so that a road that sits on private land can be taken on by the local council and maintained by them from a drainage standpoint or, in the case of the public sewers, so that the water authority can manage them. Drainage, as it turns out, was to become a mainstay throughout my career as an engineer.
From Surrey I headed to Sydney, Australia where I joined a firm of primarily geotechnical civil engineers looking after mining and land fill assets across New South Wales and Queensland. As a surface water engineer my skills were used managing water runoff from around mines and other sites which kept me busy for four years, alongside some soil testing with the geotechnical teams. Alas, the outback vistas and Australian wildlife were not enough to sway me from the call of home, and I returned to the UK and to Campbell Reith to continue my work on drainage. This time I was engaged in planning feasibility design work (otherwise known as outline design) for SuDS and surface water drainage.
Fast forward two years and I headed back to the West Country to a civil engineering company that was later to be integrated with Stantec. I earned my keep working on new housing developments ranging from sites of 50 to 400 properties. Again, I was doing plenty of SuDS work, and had more contact with the client, increasing my experience with Highways and giving me a more well-rounded engineering experience. After a couple of years, I was ready for another challenge. I had built up a passion for drainage, but it had been focussed on surface water drainage for Highways and it was time to move into the foul water sphere. Enter WCI.
In 2021 I joined WCI Group where, having previously worked with established infrastructure, I now also apply my skills to private treatment works for off main drainage works for somewhat rural site. I was able to bring my expertise in surface water solutions to WCI at a point where their experience mostly lay in wastewater projects.
What does the job entail?
In a nutshell, I take a client’s (domestic or commercial) drainage problem or goal and take them through a journey of what they can or cannot do from start to finish. For example, if that’s a new building we’ll be dealing with what they need to do to meet planning and regulatory requirements, on planning award, we’ll produce a detailed design sufficient for building control, tender and construction submissions and then on to construction support. We also come in to support the client with any current drainage problems that may be impacting their day-to-day enjoyment of their property or preventing the sale of a property.
As department head, I also manage and mentor our more junior engineers, a role I really enjoy. Wastewater engineers can be hard to come by and WCI puts great value on growing new talent from within the business.
How does your consulting engineering department fit with the other WCI divisions?
The biggest benefit for the consulting team of having the other divisions is the knowledge pool. We’re able to call on the site project engineers for their experiences on installation and tricky ground conditions to ensure we can account for these within our design outputs. We are also able to call upon our servicing teams to ensure we are able to specify the correct plant that would be most suitable for a particular site’s constraints for ongoing maintenance etc. This knowledge pool has become invaluable to much of our design works when working with tricky sites.
Which projects that you’ve worked on are you most proud of?
We have a project for a domestic client who moved house from a flood zone on the outskirts of Taunton to then find out that their new neighbours were struggling to sell their home due to the area being exposed to surface water flooding from the public highway. Not wanting history to repeat itself, they contacted us to conduct a flood risk assessment to see whether their neighbour’s problem would in time be an issue for them too. We conducted a desk top flood risk assessment and put in place an action plan to mitigate flood risk. Although the risk was deemed low risk, further analysis of the contributing catchment and the capacity of the outfall pipe from site was undertaken by one of our project engineers to assess whether the existing pipe was fit-for-purpose. The outfall pipe was deemed suitable under all the correct regulations. However, with the deterioration of the pipe and the client’s need for assurance that this would cope and for future proofing, a design of the pipe was carried out and installed by our project engineers as a turn-key installation. The fact that we were able to use multiple facets of our company to resolve this issue (e.g. Flood Risk Assessment, Design, Turn-Key Installation) was particularly rewarding and testament to the ‘arm-around’ the project approach we are able to apply.
Another interesting project we have completed was centred on a housing development in Devon. WCI was brought in by housebuilder Devonshire Homes to ensure all regulatory approvals were in place on a development of 75 homes that they’d taken over from another firm. The firm had run into problems – not least because they’d started construction based only on outline rather than detailed design plans. We were tasked with gaining approval for sections 38, 278 and 104 for Highways and the local water authority for the construction of the drainage system.
What are you and the team working on now?
Nutrient Neutrality regulations in Somerset are keeping us busy! Akintunde in particular is heavily involved in conducting Nutrient Neutrality Assessment Mitigation Strategy (NNAMS) work for clients as part of our phosphate credit scheme.
Our newest member, Max, is working through a number of outline drainage designs ranging from an off main drainage solution for several holiday lets within Devon to SuDS drainage design for a new warehouse in the Somerset Levels where flood risk is a particular constraint.
Biggest challenges your clients face?
Often clients are expecting an over simplified design that ticks a box to gain regulatory or planning approval. This is only ever part of our remit – and there are other factors that need to be considered, such as the longevity of the system, whole life costs etc. This is why we always have direct contact with our clients and see projects as a collaboration, taking the problem on as our own to find the best solution.
Most rewarding part of your role?
I enjoy working with our clients to fully understand what they need and ensure they get what they need. This isn’t always the same as getting what they’ve asked for but we go through a process together to find the solution best suited to them.
Biggest misconception about working in wastewater drainage?
Drainage isn’t really that important. Drainage is consistently undervalued – it’s not glamourous, there’s no instant gratification but it can generate many, many problems if it’s not taken seriously.
Advice for an aspiring wastewater engineer?
I was once told that consulting engineering is 90% human interaction and 10% technical know-how. This has rung true time and again. As a junior engineer the urge to use all your technical knowledge is strong but unless you find out what the problem is through a collaborative approach with your client, you will struggle to articulate a solution.
Why WCI?
For me it was about being able to make an impact in a small company that’s not bogged down by bureaucracy. I was at the stage of my career where I was keen to make my mark and leave a legacy. I’ve been able to do that insofar as I brought my Highways experience to the team and in turn have diversified our client offering at WCI.
Start or progress your career in wastewater engineering at WCI Group. With a passion for the highest standards in engineering and service and ambitious plans to grow into an expanding market we offer fantastic career opportunities for the right candidates. Take a look at our Careers page.
