Vol. 6 No. 2 Fall 1998
A Newsletter About New Jersey's Water Quality Programs

The USEPA, which must publish minimum operator license requirements by February 1999, published draft guidelines in March 1998. DEP's rule changes look to encompass two items mentioned in the draft.

The first item establishes the need for ongoing training prior to renewing an operator's license. Although the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act covers only water supply operators, DEP is proposing continuing education requirements for all licensed operators. This is supported by both the New Jersey Section of the American Water Works Association and the New Jersey Water Environment Association. Continuing education credits can be expressed in Training Contact Hours (TCHs) with one continuing education unit (CEU) equal to 10 TCHs. DEP's proposal is to require 36 TCHs for Class 3 and Class 4 license holders over a three year period. Class 1 and Class 2 license holders would have an 18 TCH requirement. With the help of the Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee, DEP is looking at what constitutes appropriate training.

The second item requires all public community water systems and nontransient noncommunity water systems to have licensed operators in responsible charge. At present, DEP does not require licensed operators for public community water systems, that do not have treatment, or nontransient noncommunity water systems that do not use surface water. There are approximately 100 public community water systems (out of 613) that do not have licensed operators. Only a small number of the approximately 1,000 public nontransient noncommunity water systems have licensed operators. (Note: A public water system means a system for the provision to the public of piped water for human consumption. A public community water system serves at least 25 persons or 15 service connections used by year round residents. A public nontransient noncommunity water system serves at least 25 of the same persons at least 4 hours a day, at least 4 days a week, at least 6 months out of the year.)

In order to comply with this guideline, DEP is looking to create a new licensed operator category modeled on the Association of Boards of Certification's license classification for Very Small Water Systems (VSWS). This license would have lesser educational and experience requirements than the present Class 1-4 license classifications. However, a VSWS licensed operator could only operate a public community water system without treatment or a nontransient noncommunity water system serving fewer than 501 persons and having a treatment point classification less than 31 points. A large number of the nontransient noncommunity water systems are small businesses, schools, hospitals, day care centers, etc. The new classification could help the subject facilities meet the new requirement without undue financial hardship. Although VSWS operators would not be allowed to operate any public community water systems with treatment, T licensed operators could operate VSWS. W licensed operators could operate those VSWS without treatment.

The State of New Jersey must comply with the USEPA guidelines by February 2001 or risk losing 20% of its Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) allotment. DEP intends to conduct meetings throughout the State to discuss these proposals and will be providing specific details in the future.

If you have any questions regarding this proposal, please contact Allan Dillon, Bureau of Safe Drinking Water, at (609) 292-5550.