Are there many job opportunities for research outside of being a Professor?

I believe your local water utility is EBMUD (East Bay Municipal Utility District). They have a very good reputation as a utility that keeps up with current technologies. On their website they say they even have INTERNSHIPS for students from Oakland through the College Track Oakland program. This might be a great place to start with your water career!

https://www.ebmud.com/about-us/teacher-resources/

https://collegetrack.org/where-we-work/oakland/

As Pieter pointed out, this is a very practical field and there are research projects going on all the time at universities, water utility companies and at consulting firms. The Water Research Foundation is a non-profit organization (it has an association with the American Water Works Association) that funds many types of research to help water suppliers provide the best service for their customers. On their website you can search research projects by topic. Check it out and see who is doing the kind of research you might be interested in. You could even email some of those people to get more information. Most people in the water industry love to talk about water! Here's a link:

http://www.waterrf.org/resources/Pages/TopicIndex.aspx

Hi Ansley -- 

Much research is conducted by commercial companies. and many research jobs are commercial. Most product companies have R&D budgets. This is certainly the case in biological and life sciences and I would imagine that in a field as practical and globally applicable as providing safe drinking water, possibly a majority of research is conducted commercially.

That said, the kinds of research and definitions of success will certainly differ between universities, large corporations and smaller startups. University research will likely be more theoretical and farther thinking, commercial work more focused on product development and marketing. (see https://xkcd.com/664/ for a humorous take on the difference).  

Research work will also differ sharply depending on whether your degree is a bachelor's, masters or doctorate.  

They'll also differ on your field. You might come at water treatment / desalination from many angles, such as 

* materials science (e.g. developing ceramic filters), 

* chemical engineering (e.g. building scalable efficient processes), 

* civil engineering 

* urban planning 

* political science

* business administration and marketing 

If you're still undergrad or high school, then finding a professor to sponsor you for an undergrad research project will be great ways to get into research. Seeking brief informational interviews from professors and professionals is a great way to find such opportunities.

From there you might seek internships and coop programs from companies in the field, possibly even ones funding university research.  Research-oriented companies will strongly prefer a candidate that's very interested and focused on their domain (keeping a good GPA also helps).