Meeting Usepa's Operator Certification Guidelines in Virginia

Abstract

This article outlines a study, funded by the Virginia Department of Health, that was undertaken to help the department develop policies and procedures for implementing the US Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) final guidelines for the certification and recertification of the operators of community water systems and nontransient‐noncommunity public water systems. These guidelines, which apply to small water systems serving fewer than 3,300 people, require that each state must have adopted or implemented a public small water system operator certification program as of Feb. 5, 2001, or be subject to USEPA's withholding of 20% of the capitalization grants to which the state is entitled from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. This study provided input that led to Virginia's decision to implement a class VI license for operators of water systems that deliver untreated, high‐quality groundwater and that serve more than 25 people but fewer than 400 people. To gather basic information on the owner/operators of small Virginia water systems, a 43‐question survey was mailed to 2,011 public systems in Virginia that served fewer than 3,300 people. The questions pertained to operations, facilities, personnel, and certification of small system operators.