Q3. Questions on Proposed…

Q3. Questions on Proposed Emergency Related Amendment 4, i.e. Allowing substitute personnel to temporarily operate a facility:

a. if a disease outbreak were to cause a critical shortage of licensed operators at a wastewater facility due to illness and quarantine requirements, the owner and/or operating authorities is/are to hire volunteering OIT certified operations much more practical than to “hire certain knowledgeable, experienced but non-licensed personnel”, except for OIC and/or ORO position(s).

5. Provide flexibility in terms of when wastewater operators need to complete training to meet their annual training requirements.

Operation personnel working in small municipalities may possess water quality analyst (WQA), water treatment (WT), water distribution/supplies (WD/WS), wastewater treatment (WWT) and wastewater collection (WWC), “The proposed amendment would allow wastewater operators to complete 120 hours of training at any time over a period of three calendar years” could require much more training hours for the operator(s) to renew his/her water and wastewater certificates if their licenses are expired in the same year.

Suggestion: the request of minimum training hours (for instance 10 or 15 hours) per calendar year might be executed by operating authorities.