Enhancing Regulatory Compliance Through Stormwater Certification
Stormwater compliance has been an ardent topic of debate over the last decade, punctuated by enforcement actions, administrative penalties, civil lawsuits, and criminal prosecutions. While the field of regulating stormwater quality is still relatively new when compared with other environmental disciplines, the field of clean water regulation has a long and established history.
Federal clean water legislation had its earliest beginnings in the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1890, which broadened through subsequent federal acts to what we commonly know today as the Clean Water Act. While regulatory focus on enforcing clean water laws intensified through the latter half of the 20th century, it was soon discovered that regulatory compliance could not be consistently achieved without incorporating professional certification as a means to elevate competency levels for wastewater treatment plant operators.
Today, all 50 states administer mandatory certification programs for wastewater treatment plant operators, with the common goal of validating operator competency in current and emerging treatment technologies. Certification programs nationwide expanded their scope in recent years to encompass supplemental mandatory and voluntary certification programs for industrial waste treatment operators, plant maintenance technologists, laboratory analysts, collection system operators, biosolids land appliers, and environmental compliance inspectors.
These wastewater occupations currently comprise thousands of certified individuals nationwide, who consider themselves the first line of defense in protecting our nation’s water quality and, ultimately, the public’s health. In similar roles, construction- and industrial-site stormwater operators also serve an equivalent first line of defense in protecting our nation’s water quality.
As federal, state, and local stormwater regulation continues to broaden and responsibilities for stormwater site operators continue to expand, it is debatable whether regulatory compliance can be achieved through enforcement alone. The history of environmental certification suggests that validating the competency of stormwater site operators through professional certification may become a vital component to achieving consistent regulatory compliance in the future.
Defining Certificate and Certification Programs
Environmental certification programs have been in existence for many years, though confusion still exists in the regulated community between what constitutes a certificate program and what constitutes a certification program. Both serve central roles in ensuring professional competency. In short, certificate programs validate competency with training, while certification programs validate competency and knowledge with actual job duties performed on an ongoing basis.
A certificate program traditionally provides continuing education on specific aspects of profession. For example, a certificate program may be offered by a university to provide individuals an opportunity to meet specific educational needs. Likewise, training providers often present a certificate of completion to recognize an individual’s participation in and successful completion of a training course. By providing training and educational opportunities, certificate programs are a valuable mechanism to expand the competency of stormwater professionals.
A certification program goes a step further by evaluating the competency of individuals based on a set of predetermined requirements. In addition to requiring education or training, a certification program also requires individuals to demonstrate competency by meeting specific criteria for experience and examination before being certified. Mandatory certification programs typically also have continuing education requirements for certification renewal.
Certification Program Standards
The purpose of environmental certification programs is to protect the public and the environment. The certification decision is extremely important because it determines who is allowed to practice as a certified operator. Therefore, the standards adopted by the certification program must be high enough to protect the public but not so stringent to unduly limit the right of qualified individuals to practice. The standards must be reasonable, rational, and fair.
Both legal and professional standards have been developed for the field of certification. The primary standards are:
- Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA, NCME)
- Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (EEOC)
- Standards for Accreditation of National Certification Organizations (NCCA)
- ANSI/ISO/IEC 17024 General Requirements for Bodies Operating Certification Systems of Persons (ANSI)
Courts have frequently used these standards to determine the appropriateness of validation procedures. A certification exam is considered legally defensible and valid if proper psychometric procedures are followed when establishing its content. Psychometrics is a branch of psychology and statistics that focuses on the measurement of a person’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Sound psychometric procedures must be followed during each phase of exam development. For example, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures requires evidence that examinations are related to the work to be performed, and in Griggs v. Duke Power, the US Supreme Court held that examinations must be a reasonable measure of job performance.
Certification Requirements
There are a number of features that characterize a quality certification program. These indicators include a legally defensible exam validation process, standards for education and experience requirements, renewal requirements, revocation, and other enforcement procedures. It is critical to involve well-qualified subject-matter experts in the development and maintenance of each certification program requirement. Subject-matter experts may include job incumbents, supervisors, trainers, regulators, certification program representatives, or other individuals with specialized knowledge about the job.
One of the most important indicators of quality in a certification program is the structure and performance of its certification board. Certification boards are responsible for technical expertise as well as oversight and direction of the organization. Because the composition of the certification board helps ensure the ongoing integrity of the program, it is important that the board includes well-respected subject-matter experts. Potential stakeholder involvement in certification boards can include representation from
- Practitioners
- Employers
- Academia
- Government agencies with regulatory authority over the field/discipline
- Associations or organizations with related interests
- Consumers/public
The three components of initial certification are examination, education, and experience. A brief overview of the components of certification is provided below.
Certification Examinations. The validity of the process used to develop the certification exams is critical and must not be compromised. A brief overview of the primary validation steps in developing certification exams follows.
Job analysis. Job analysis is a process for describing a job, including its major areas of responsibility, tasks, and requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities. The purpose of the job analysis process is to document the linkage between the content of the examination and the work performed in the field. As part of this process, subject-matter expert workshops are conducted to develop national surveys that focus on the tasks and capabilities required for successful job performance. Exam specifications (also referred to as the Need-to-Know Criteria in operator certification) are developed from the results of the national survey to define the characteristics of an exam. These exam specifications ensure that appropriate content is covered on the exam and that multiple exam forms are consistent with each other.
Item development. The certification program must establish guidelines and standards for acceptable exam questions. The results of the job analysis are used as the basis for developing examination items. In order to provide a valid measurement of job performance, exam items must measure the tasks defined in the exam specifications. Items developed for a certification exam must be relevant to the profession and to the protection of the public.
Item validation. All new questions must be validated by a group of subject-matter experts before being included on an examination. Validation includes verifying each item’s technical accuracy and relevance. In addition, the subject-matter experts ensure that the item has a verified reference that the correct answer is the best answer, and the distractors are incorrect, but plausible.
Exam construction. Exam construction refers to the process of selecting questions for the exam. Exam construction is based on the exam specifications and the validated item bank of questions. During this process, it is important to screen items based on their historical statistical data so that only items with acceptable statistical performance are included. It is also important to ensure that the content weighting of the exam is reflective of the job.
Statistics analysis. Both exam and item statistics must be periodically reviewed to ensure items are performing adequately. Through this review, items that do not meet the certification board’s standards for performance should be flagged for review.
Education and Experience Requirements. Eligibility requirements are the education and experience required in order to become certified. All eligibility requirements should be logically related and appropriate to the job requirements. Because eligibility requirements restrict access to certification, certification organizations must make decisions about eligibility requirements only after the issue has been studied in detail and input has been sought from all of the affected stakeholders. All certification eligibility requirements should be nondiscriminatory, objective, and reasonable.
Renewal Requirements. The validity of a certification program is compromised if the credential does not attempt to ensure some continual level of current knowledge, skill, or ability. The certification renewal process requires certificants to obtain continuing education in order to maintain their knowledge and skills in their profession. Renewal is also an important aspect of the public protection role of certification programs. Most people would not be comfortable relying upon professionals that did not demonstrate some level of continuing competence in their professions.
Voluntary Certification Program
Because of the importance of certification in the wastewater industry, several groups have taken the lead in developing their own voluntary certification programs. These voluntary certification programs provide individuals with a mechanism to demonstrate their expertise in the field, as their colleagues in wastewater treatment have done for many years through state regulatory boards.
In addition to helping achieve regulatory compliance, mandatory and voluntary certification programs provide wastewater professionals with career advancement opportunities and a mechanism to demonstrate competency and professionalism in their field of expertise. Employers benefit by using certification to screen potential new hires and motivate employees to expand their knowledge and skills.
Regulatory compliance can never be stronger than its weakest link, and certification is an established path to galvanize the link of stormwater operator competency and professionalism. Hurdles to overcome include regulatory prioritization and funding. As stormwater regulation continues to broaden, the viability of standardized stormwater site operator certification programs should also be broadened.
