5 Colo. Code Regs. § 1003-2-100.40
Provisions of section 25-9-108, C.R.S., provide the specific statutory authority for the adoption of these amendments to the established regulatory provisions of Regulation 100 (5 CCR 1003-2). The Board also adopted, in compliance with section 24-4-103(4), C.R.S., the following statement of basis and purpose.
BASIS AND PURPOSE
The Board has revised section 100.22.2 to modify the current examination and administration fees. The existing $25.00 examination fee is inadequate to cover the actual cost of certification exams provided by ABC. Up until now, the resulting deficit has been made up by the administration fee. However, the Board agrees with the CECTI and Certification Council proposal that it is more appropriate to increase the examination fee (to $35.00), while reducing the administration fee (from $60.00 to $50.00) for those obtaining a new certification by examination. The net result will be no change in total fees for those passing a certification examination to obtain a new certification at a higher level. Those who take an examination and fail will incur a somewhat higher expense. The Board also agrees that it is appropriate not to make any change in the administration fees at this time for those obtaining renewal certifications or certification by reciprocity.
Subsection 100.14.1 has been revised to allow a portion of the training units required for certification renewal to be obtained from courses approved as core training in categories other than the operator category for the certification being renewed. The Board has determined that this is consistent with the fact that "supplemental" training courses on a wide variety of topics are already allowed to provide a portion of the training units for certification renewal. This approach is also consistent with the fact that up to 50 percent of the experience requirement for operators qualifying to take certification examinations can be based on "cross-experience".
The revised regulation clarifies that at least 50 percent of the training units for certification renewal must be obtained from core training courses approved in the certification category being renewed. The remainder of the training units may consist of any combination of supplemental training units and/or training units approved as core training in other certification categories. The Board also has included language to prevent "double-counting" the training units from a single course. For example, if a course has been approved for 1.0 training units in each of the certification categories, an operator renewing a class A water treatment operator certification may count the 1.0 training unit toward renewal but may not also use cross-experience credit for the same course, even though it has been approved for training units in other certification categories.
The Colorado operators certification statute previously required that each of the Board's nonprofit contractors "conducts failed exam reviews" following each certification examination cycle. This provision was amended in House Bill 04-1211, adopted by the 2004 session of the Colorado General Assembly, to provide that each contractor "provides feedback to examinees upon request following each examination". Subsection 100.11.5 has been revised to require that feedback regarding applicants' performance on the individual topics tested be provided to each person taking an operators certification examination. This new language goes beyond the revised statutory mandate, which only requires such feedback upon request. However, the Board has provided in the regulation for the automatic provision of feedback to all examinees, since that is consistent with the contractors' current practice.
In order to maintain enforcement primacy under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the State must approve parties who are qualified to make and to assure the quality of certain analyses required by the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"). These requirements are detailed in the Colorado Primary Drinking Water Regulation, 5 CCR 1003-1, Article 7.5, "Disinfectant Residuals, Disinfection Byproducts, and Disinfection Byproduct Precursors." Colorado elected to approve certified operators as the parties approved by the State to perform these analyses.
To meet this requirement, the Board approved the original version of subsection 100.14.6 of Regulation 100 in May 2002. However, as originally adopted, the subsection was overly broad. The amendment approved by the Board in this rulemaking clarifies that subsection 100.14.6 applies only to those operators whose duties include performing the above-mentioned analyses and associated quality assurance procedures required by the article 7.5 of the Colorado Primary Drinking Water Regulation.
5 CCR 1003-2-100.40