FLORIDA WATER AND POLLUTION CONTROL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION, INC.

 

POSITION STATEMENT ON LICENSED OPERATOR ATTENDANCE VARIANCE REQUESTS

BACKGROUND

Chapter 468 of the Florida Statutes requires Florida’s public drinking water treatment plants and domestic wastewater treatment plants to be operated and supervised by properly licensed treatment plant operators. The statutory minimum frequency and duration of such operator supervision is established in Chapter 62-699, Florida Administrative Code (FAC).

Florida law allows facility owners to seek a variance. While the Florida Water and Pollution Control Operators Association, Inc. (FW&PCOA) believes that an operator properly licensed by the State of Florida must supervise all facilities, there may be limited circumstances under which the minimum attendance requirements established by FAC 62-699 might safely be reduced.

PURPOSE

This position paper is solely intended to assist the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) in establishing alternative site-specific operator attendance requirements. The FW&PCOA offers no guidance in evaluating whether any variance is justified; FDEP must make that determination separately.

FW&PCOA RECOMMENDATIONS

FDEP SHOULD ALLOW NO OPERATOR ATTENDANCE VARIANCE WHICH IN ANY WAY COMPROMISES PUBLIC HEALTH, WORKER SAFETY, OR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION.

ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM PLANT STAFFING CRITERIA

 

Normally, a plant’s rated capacity as determined by FDEP (Plant Capacity) rather than actual flow determines a plant’s licensed operator attendance requirements under FAC 62-699. Once FDEP has determined that a variance is warranted however, average daily flow over the most recently completed twelve calendar month period (AADF) may be substituted for Plant Capacity. FDEP may then apply the lower AADF figure to the FAC 62-699 matrix and approve the resulting reduced operator attendance schedule.

Lead or Chief Operator Attendance

As to license level, FDEP should grant no variance to FAC 62-699 lead or chief operator requirements. Lead or chief operator attendance requirements may be reduced subject to the minimum eligibility criteria set forth herein. Further, lead or chief operators may serve multiple plants simultaneously, provided that such operators electronically monitor such plants from a central location at no less frequency and duration than required for the largest of the plants so monitored.

Eligibility Criteria

Reduction in operator attendance should only be considered for certain treatment plants. Eligibility should be limited to those plants which
have experienced an average daily flow over the immediately preceding twelve month period (AADF) which is less than 50% of the Plant Capacity, and
 
have not been issued a warning letter, Notice of Violation, or any other agency action pertaining directly to plant effluent quality or operator misconduct within the immediately preceding thirty-six month period, and
 
have received an overall satisfactory or higher rating for all site inspections performed by FDEP or its authorized agent within the immediately preceding thirty-six month period, and
 
do not employ any operator against whom formal disciplinary action has been sustained within the immediately preceding twelve month period, and
 
have a tested (according to regulatory requirements) and functioning emergency power unit or backup power supply and sufficient fuel in storage to operate the full Plant Capacity for no less than twice the period of time between operator visits . This unit must have the capability of sensing power interruptions, disconnecting normal line power, starting itself immediately, placing itself on-line as the primary power source, then reversing this sequence automatically when normal line power returns, and
 
have made provisions for the utility phone to be answered twenty-four hours per day by a live attendant having direct access to the plant’s lead or chief operator, and
 
have the capability of full Plant Capacity disinfection with sodium hypochlorite or other non-pressurized disinfectant acceptable to FDEP during the licensed operator’s absence. Alternatively, the plant may be equipped with hazardous compressed gas storage containment and scrubbing equipment, and
 
have functioning in-place electronic monitoring and telemetry reporting, at minimum, line power status, compressed gas leak detection, storage tank level (water plants only), system pressure (water plants only), and all other parameters required by FDEP to an appropriately licensed "on-call" treatment plant operator assigned to remotely monitor and respond to these conditions. Prior to issuance of the operator attendance variance, the applicant must certify a 90-day successful trial of the monitoring and telemetry system, and
 
have redundant on-line and standby critical equipment such that a single failure during the operator’s absence will have no adverse consequences to customers served by the plant, and
 
are not exposed to a known sanitary hazard (water treatment plants only) as defined by FDEP, and
 
(for water treatment plants only) maintain a volume of treated water in storage equal to, at minimum, twice the potential demand that might occur between licensed operator visits. This demand shall be calculated based on AADF as defined herein, and

 

Other Considerations

 
For plants with an AADF of less than 25% of Plant Capacity, attendance requirements may be reduced even further as follows:

 

Plants rated Class A or B under FAC 62-699 should not be attended by licensed operators less than seven days per week, regardless of flow. Hours per day, however, may be reduced to a number equal to AADF divided by Plant Capacity, this value multiplied by the FAC 62-699 requirement.

 

Example

 

A 10 MGD lime softening water treatment plant meeting all the criteria outlined above operates at an AADF of 2.0 MGD. Instead of the 62-699 FAC operator attendance requirement of 24 hour per day, seven days per week, the requirement can be reduced to:

2.0 MGD AADF/10 MGD Plant Capacity x 24 hours per day = 4.8 (rounded to 5) hours per day, 7 days per week.

 

Plants rated Class C or D under FAC 62-699 should not be attended by a licensed operator less than three non-consecutive days per week and not less than ½ hour per visit, regardless of flow. Days per week, however, may be reduced to a number equal to AADF divided by Plant Capacity, this value multiplied by the FAC 62-699 requirement, and this result rounded to the next higher whole number.

Example

A 0.2 MGD activated sludge wastewater treatment plant meeting all the criteria outlined above operates at an AADF of 0.04 MGD. Instead of the 62-699 FAC operator attendance requirement of 3 hours per day, 5 days per week, and one visit on each weekend day, the requirement can be reduced to:

0.04 MGD AADF/0.2 MGD Plant Capacity x 5 days per week = 1 (minimum of 3) days per week, minimum of ½ hour per day.

Only Category V, Class D water treatment plants, and Category III or IV, Class D wastewater plants as defined by 62-699 FAC may be attended by a licensed operator less than 3 days per week.

FDEP should require an affidavit sealed by a Florida registered professional engineer and signed by the permittee attesting that they have inspected and are familiar with the plant for which the variance is requested. These individuals should affirm that to the best of their knowledge and belief, the plant complies with all of the foregoing requirements.
The term of any variance should not exceed one year, renewable only with the FDEP approval.
The permittee or plant owner should give timely prior public notice of the proposed variance in a manner prescribed by FDEP.

ADOPTED THIS ______ DAY OF ___________________, 19__ BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, FLORIDA WATER AND POLLUTION CONTROL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION, INC.

Grady O. Sorah, President

Rim Bishop, Secretary-Treasurer