A wastewater monitoring system uses a camera in a fixed location in a wastewater pipe. The camera is coupled to a sensor that measures some characteristic of material in the wastewater pipe. The sensor is programmed with one or more alarms that, when triggered, cause the sensor to wake up the camera and command the camera to take one or more photos. Sensor data, such as current time/date, location, and the characteristics of material in the wastewater pipe, is sent by the sensor to the camera, which overlays one or more photos with visible text information corresponding to the received sensor data. The sensor can wake up the camera and command the camera to turn on the camera's Wi-Fi interface, which allows a wastewater control system in a remote location to communicate directly with the camera.