Current through all regulations passed and filed through December 16, 2024
Except as otherwise noted, the definitions in rule
3745-81-01 of the Administrative
Code apply to this chapter.
(A)
(1)
"Active instruction" means the time when a professional operator is receiving
instruction. This does not include break time, introductions or question and
answer sessions in excess of fifteen minutes. A professional operator shall not
claim hours on a renewal application other than those received in active
instruction.
(2) "Agency" means the
Ohio EPA.
(3) "Automated" means the
ability to monitor and control water and wastewater treatment processes and the
status of treatment components by computer or electronic means.
(4) "Available" means able to be contacted as
needed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to make operational decisions
in a timely manner.
(5) "Average
daily flow" for the purpose of this chapter means the average of the sixty
highest daily flows during any three hundred sixty-five day
period.
(C)
(1) "Certified professional operator" or
"professional operator" means an individual with valid certification issued
pursuant to this chapter.
(2)
"Certified professional operator of record" or "professional operator of
record" means the on-site certified professional operator or one of the on-site
certified professional operators responsible for the technical operation of one
or more of the following:
(a) A public water
system.
(b) A water treatment
plant, if a public water system has more than one water treatment
plant.
(c) A distribution
system.
(f) A wastewater treatment
facility, if a treatment works has more than one wastewater treatment
facility.
(3) "Complete
application" means an application submitted with all required information on
the form completed and all appropriate fees, transcripts and documentation
attached. Applications missing any of the listed items
are not
considered complete.
(4) "Contact hours" means time spent by a
certified professional operator in approved formal or informal
training.
(5) "Continuous
monitoring" means the monitoring and recording of parameters accomplished by
either meters or manual samples at least every fifteen minutes.
(6) "Contract operations company" means a
person which has been approved by the director to employ or subcontract with
certified professional operators and contracts with public water systems or
wastewater treatment facilities to provide the professional operator services
required by this chapter.
(7)
"Contracted professional operator" means an individual who either works for a
contract operations company or who individually contracts with public water
systems or wastewater treatment facilities to provide the professional operator
services required by this chapter.
(8) "Core person ID" means the unique
identifying number assigned to a person by the agency. For certified
professional operators, this number is the middle digits of their certification
number.
(9) "Council" means the
professional operator certification advisory council as established in rule
3745-7-10 of the Administrative
Code.
(D) "Director"
means the director of the Ohio EPA or the director's duly authorized
representative.
(E) "Expired
certificate" means a certificate which has not been renewed by December
thirty-first of the renewal year. An expired certificate may be renewed within
six months of the expiration date in accordance with rule
3745-7-15 of the Administrative
Code.
(F)
(1)
"Facility
specific certificate" means a certificate associated with a treatment facility
within a public water system or wastewater treatment facility.
(2)
"Field" means the field of practice for which a professional operator is
certified. Water supply, water distribution, water
reclamation, and wastewater collection are each fields of
certification.
(G) "Green
leaf training provider" means a training provider that is approved by the
director to issue trainer-specific contact hour course approval
numbers.
(I) "Invalid certificate" means a certificate
which expired and was not renewed within six months of the expiration
date.
(M) "Management experience" means experience
obtained while supervising, directing, or controlling the affairs associated
with a public water system or treatment works. Such experience
includes, but is not
limited to, being directly responsible
for plant operations, supervising operating staff, and being responsible for
personnel issues. Experience gained in the position of shift supervisor at a
class III or IV facility shall qualify as management experience.
(N) "NPDES" means national pollutant
discharge elimination system.
(O)
(1) "One year" means two thousand eighty
hours when referring to operating experience. This is equal to forty hours per
week for fifty-two weeks. When referring to educational experience one year
constitutes at least thirty semester hours of
applicable course work.
(a) "Nine months"
means fifteen hundred sixty hours when referring to operating
experience.
(b) "Six months" means
one thousand forty hours when referring to operating experience.
(2) "Operating experience" means
time performing the day-to-day activities necessary to ensure the proper
performance and operation of the equipment or processes of a public water
system, treatment works, or sewerage system. Experience for the water supply or
water distribution examination may only be obtained at a public water system as
defined in this rule.
(a)
Types of experience related
to a public water system, a treatment works, a water distribution system, or a
sewerage system that qualify as operating experience include the following:
(i) Experience while in the military with
providing potable water or wastewater treatment.
(ii) On-site investigations and inspections
of operations that require coordination of work with active treatment
processes, collection, or distribution systems.
(iii) Hands-on operation and maintenance of a
public water system, a treatment works, a water distribution system or a
sewerage system.
(iv) Experience in
ensuring compliance with primary and secondary maximum contaminant levels,
action levels and permit limits through the evaluation of facility process
control parameters.
(v) Industrial
wastewater treatment.
(b)
For applicants whose actual job
responsibilities solely consist of one or more of the following types of
experience, in conjunction with the applicant's job description, the experience
qualifies as operating experience but may count for no
more than twenty-five per cent of the operating experience requirement of each
field.
A
combination of duties of the following would count for no more than twenty-five
per cent of the operating experience requirement of each field.
(i) Sludge handling or hauling, if part of a
treatment works.
(ii) On-site
supervisory control and data acquisition ("SCADA") systems
monitoring.
(iii) Laboratory
analyses if the analyses are conducted in the laboratory of the owner of a
public water system, treatment works or sewerage system.
(iv) Pretreatment, if part of a treatment
works or sewerage system.
(v)
Collection system experience when applying for a wastewater treatment
examination or certificate.
(vi)
Distribution experience when applying for a water supply examination or
certificate.
(vii) Construction
inspection and engineering design that require coordination of the inspection
or design with the operation of the active treatment process, sewerage or
distribution systems.
(viii) Source
water protection and watershed management.
(c)
The following types of
experience related to a public water system, a treatment works, a water
distribution system, or a sewerage system do not qualify
as operating experience:
(ii) Commercial laboratory
work.
(iii) Sludge handling and
hauling if not part of a treatment works.
(vi) Experience as a laborer, if only
responsible for mowing grass, painting tanks, etc.
(vii) Investigations and inspections of
operations that do not require coordination of work with active treatment
processes, collection, or distribution systems.
(viii) Construction inspections and
engineering design that do not require coordination of work with active
treatment processes, collection, or distribution systems.
(ix) Off-site monitoring of SCADA.
(xi) Septic tank maintenance or
operation.
(P)
(1)
"Person" means any individual; corporation; company; association; partnership;
the state; or any political subdivision, agency, institution, or
instrumentality thereof; any interstate body created by compact; or the federal
government or any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof.
(2) "Population," for the purpose of this
chapter only, means the following:
(a) For
community public water systems, population is determined in accordance with
paragraph (P)(11)(a) of rule
3745-81-01 of the Administrative
Code and the addition of the average of the highest sixty days for any
non-community population determined using the methods identified in paragraph
(P)(11)(b) of rule
3745-81-01 of the Administrative
Code. In the event a certificate of occupancy or seating capacity is used in
accordance with paragraph (P)(11)(b) of rule
3745-81-01 of the Administrative
Code, an average does not need to be calculated.
(b) For noncommunity public water systems,
population is the average of the highest sixty days for any
non-community population determined using the methods identified in paragraph
(P)(11)(b) of rule
3745-81-01 of the Administrative
Code. In the event a certificate of occupancy or seating capacity is used in
accordance with paragraph (P)(11)(b) of rule
3745-81-01 of the Administrative
Code, an average does not need to be calculated.
(3) "Precipitative softening" means a series
of processes to remove hardness using lime or any other chemicals to cause
chemical precipitation prior to filtration.
(4) "Private sewer" means a sewer or sewerage
system that is not public.
(5)
"Public sewer" means a sewer or sewerage system that is owned by a
municipality, county, or state entity or any public body created under state
law that has authority over sewerage.
(6) "Public water system" is defined in rule
3745-81-01 of the Administrative
Code.
(S)
(1)
"Satellite
collection system" means any public sewerage system that conveys wastewater to
any sewerage system or treatment works owned by a separate
entity.
(2) "Sewage sludge
facility" is as defined in rule
3745-40-01 of the Administrative
Code.
(3) "Sewerage system"
is as defined in section
6111.01 of the Revised
Code.
(T)
(1) "Technical operation" means the act of
making process control or system integrity decisions which directly impact the
quality or quantity of water or effluent.
(2) "Treatment works" is as defined in
section 6111.01 of the Revised
Code.
(V)
(1) "Valid certificate" means a certificate
that is not expired, suspended, revoked or invalid.
(2) "Visit" means a period of time when a
person is on-site at a public water system, treatment works, or sewerage system
that is sufficient to perform routine sampling (e.g. flow, chlorine residual,
and pH measurements), maintenance, or observation of a public water system,
sewerage systems, or treatment works in order to ensure compliance and proper
operation.
(W)
(1) "Wastewater" means water containing
sewage, industrial waste, or other wastes.
(2) "Wastewater collection system" shall mean
"sewerage system" as defined in section
6111.01 of the Revised
Code.
(3) "Wastewater treatment
facility" is as defined in rule
3745-33-01 of the Administrative
Code. A treatment works may be comprised of more than one wastewater treatment
facility.
(4) "Water treatment
plant" means any type of equipment, device, treatment unit, or structure that
in some way alters the physical, chemical, or microbiological quality of the
water, excluding booster chlorination facilities within the distribution system
of a public water system that has a classified water treatment plant. A public
water system may be comprised of more than one water treatment plant.
(5) "Week" for the purposes of the rules in
this chapter means a seven-day period beginning on Sunday and ending on the
following Saturday.