For more than 20 years, the state of Idaho had a voluntary Drinking Water Operator Certification Program. In April 2000, drinking water certification became mandatory for systems and operators for the first time under the authority of the Department of Environmental Quality. The purpose of instituting a mandatory drinking water certification program was to protect Idaho's water resources, public health, and public investment in treatment and transport works by establishing standards of competency among operating personnel.

With the advent of mandatory certification, the owner of every community and nontransient noncommunity water system and the owner of every surface water system were required to employ licensed operators. The rules required all operators or operating personnel, which are those individuals making system control or system integrity decisions about water quantity or water quality that may affect public health to become licensed.

In 2004, the Idaho Legislature split the certification authority between two agencies; transferring authority for the individual operators to a Governor appointed Board of Drinking Water and Wastewater Professionals and the Idaho Bureau of Occupational Licenses and leaving certification authority for drinking water SYSTEMS at DEQ.

The Bureau of Occupational Licenses changed the operator certification program to an operator licensure program. For consistency in terminology, DEQ is now using the term license instead of certificate.

Today

To access individual operator licensure rules, go to http://adm.idaho.gov/ adminrules/rules/idapa24/0501.pdf. The DEQ drinking water rule with system licensure and classification requirements is found in IDAPA 58.01.08.003 and 553-555.

A public drinking water system is a treatment or distribution system that serves piped water to at least 25 persons or 15 service connections for at least 60 days per year. The systems may be owned by homeowner associations, investor-owned water companies, local governments, and others. Water that does not come from a public water supply and serves one or two homes is called a private water supply system; a system with fewer than 15 service connections is called a nonpublic water supply system.

A public drinking water system is either a community water system or a noncommunity water system.

A community water system is a public water system that serves the same people year-round. Examples of entities served by community water systems include homes, apartments, condominiums, nursing homes and mobile home parks in cities and small towns.

A noncommunity water system is a public water system that serves the public, but does not serve the same people year-round. There are two types of non-community systems:

A nontransient noncommunity water system is a noncommunity water system that serves the same people more than six months per year, but not year-round. (i.e., a school or hospital with its own water supply).

A transient noncommunity water system is a noncommunity water system that serves the public, but not the same individuals, for more than six months (i.e., a restaurant, rest area, church camp or campground with its own water supply).

Public drinking water systems and distribution facilities are subject to the licensure requirements for system operators specified in IDAPA 58.01.08.003 and 553-560. The rules include the following requirements.

• Owners of all community and nontransient noncommunity water systems must place the direct supervision of their drinking water system, including each treatment facility and/or distribution system, under the responsible charge of an operator holding a current license equal to or greater than the classification of the drinking water system and/or distribution system.

• Owners of all surface water systems must place the direct supervision of their public drinking water systems under the responsible charge of an operator holding a current license equal to or greater than the classification of the drinking water treatment and/or distribution system.

• Owners must also designate a substitute responsible charge operator to replace the responsible charge operator when he/she is unavailable on-site or on-call for more than one day. The substitute responsible charge operator must be licensed at a class and type equal to or greater than the classification of the public drinking water system.

• The responsible charge operator and the substitute responsible

charge operator must be two different persons.

• A designated licensed public drinking water system operator must be available for each operating shift (This requirement applies to only those water systems large enough to employ multiple shifts of employees).

• All operating personnel at community and nontransient noncommunity public drinking water systems and all public surface water systems making process control/system integrity decisions about water quality or quantity that affect public health must be licensed.