Advice on tough career/life choice...

I have always held up the ideal that a job is a means to provide you with the $$ to do what you REALLY want to do!! Yes, you should enjoy a job because you should want to continue in the direction you've chosen, and in your case its a toss up, but you sound like you enjoyed being in heavy equipment.

That would bring me back to what I really wanted to do! Do you want to be a water treatment expert and spend your energy learning and advancing there, or do you want to make the same amount of money at a position you liked and excelled at and be close back with your family??

Personally, I would take the heavy equipment for the above reasons, and with kids as old as yours, your need to provide for them should be at its end, making for less pressure to have to think about spending so much time and energy learning a new career! That just my opinion, but happiness and family will always win over a "career" as in your case!!

Good luck with whatever you decide!! Geof