1.1 NJDEP Licensing Framework & Operator License Types

1.1 NJDEP Licensing Framework & Operator License Types

Regulatory Authority & Administrative Framework (N.J.A.C. 7:10A)

Under the authority of the New Jersey Water Supply Management Act (N.J.S.A. 58:1A-1 et seq.), the Safe Drinking Water Act (N.J.S.A. 58:12A-1 et seq.), and the Water Pollution Control Act (N.J.S.A. 58:10A-1 et seq.), the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) regulates the qualification, examination, and licensing of water and wastewater operators through N.J.A.C. 7:10A (Licensing of Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment System Operators).

Day-to-day administration of operator credentials runs through the Department's Examinations & Licensing Unit, which processes applications, issues Authorizations to Test, mails renewal applications each August, and records Training Contact Hours. Program oversight for drinking water sits with the Division of Water Supply and Geoscience (including the Bureau of Safe Drinking Water and the Bureau of Water System Engineering); wastewater oversight sits with the Division of Water Quality, which administers New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NJPDES) discharge-to-surface-water (DSW) and discharge-to-groundwater (DGW) permits, industrial pretreatment, and residuals management.

Two statutory bodies advise the Department:

1. Board of Examiners (N.J.A.C. 7:10A-1.3) — a nine-member board appointed by the Commissioner to three-year terms:

   • Three representatives from the water works field
   • Three representatives from the wastewater field
   • Three representatives from the Department

   Board members other than Department personnel must be actively engaged licensed operators with at least five years of operating experience in New Jersey and must hold a current Class 4 license. Five members constitute a quorum. The Board reviews examination applications on behalf of DEP, advises on the preparation, conduct, and scoring of examinations, and establishes examination review procedures that are fair to applicants while preserving examination integrity.

2. Advisory Committee on Water Supply and Wastewater Licensed Operator Training (N.J.A.C. 7:10A-1.5) — a separate body that coordinates New Jersey educational institutions offering operator coursework, establishes and updates standardized course outlines and the minimum classroom hours for each, reviews textbooks, and recommends seminars and training courses to the Department. The Advisory Committee — not the Board of Examiners — is where the educational-institution and Rutgers Office of Continuing Professional Education seats sit. It must meet at least once each year.

Exam Trap Alert: Candidates routinely confuse the two bodies. The Board of Examiners is nine members (3 water works / 3 wastewater / 3 Department) and deals with examinations and applicant qualifications. The Advisory Committee is a larger, differently constituted body that deals with training courses and curricula. A question that mentions educators, Rutgers, or course outlines is describing the Advisory Committee.

---

The License Types Established by N.J.A.C. 7:10A

New Jersey issues six license types to new applicants, plus three restricted or legacy designations that still appear on the exam because they remain valid for the specific systems they were issued for.

Very Small Water System (VSWS) Eligibility

Under the definitions at N.J.A.C. 7:10A-1.2, a Very Small Water System is either:

1. A public community water system that serves 100 or fewer dwellings or properties and that does not use treatment; or
2. A public nontransient noncommunity water system that does not use treatment, or that uses treatment only in the form of disinfection, home-style ion exchange units, or any other treatment that does not require chemical addition, process adjustment, backwashing, or media regeneration (for example, calcium carbonate filters, granular activated carbon, or cartridge filters).

Exam Trap Alert: The two branches are not symmetrical. The community branch requires no treatment at all. The limited-disinfection and passive-treatment allowance applies only to the nontransient noncommunity branch. Once a system adds treatment that requires chemical addition, process adjustment, backwashing, or media regeneration, it is no longer a VSWS and must be classified and staffed as a T system.

---

When a Licensed Operator Is Required — and the Statutory Exemptions

N.J.A.C. 7:10A-1.10(a) requires every owner of a system to employ a licensed operator holding the license prescribed by the Department for that classification of system. Federal drinking water rules reinforce this: all public community and public nontransient noncommunity water systems, and any system using surface water, must be under the responsible charge of an operator certified at or above the classification of the system.

Subsection (c) then exempts a short, heavily tested list of systems from the licensed-operator requirement:

• Industrial and public wastewater treatment systems that need no individual NJPDES permit or general permit authorization to discharge under N.J.A.C. 7:14A.
• Industrial wastewater treatment systems authorized under a NJPDES general permit for stormwater runoff only, unless the general permit specifically requires an operator.
• Industrial wastewater treatment systems consisting of American Petroleum Institute (API) approved or equivalent gravity oil/water separators and/or sedimentation units that treat discharges consisting solely of stormwater runoff not commingled with other wastewater.
• Industrial systems designed to treat a monthly average of less than 4,000 gallons per day of process wastewater before indirect discharge to a public wastewater treatment system, where the individual NJPDES significant indirect user (SIU) permit was issued solely because the permittee is subject to Federal categorical pretreatment standards.
• Systems whose general permit authorization specifically exempts the related treatment system from the licensed-operator requirement.
• Systems permitted for a Class V injection well that relies solely on gravity or an automatic siphon.
• Public wastewater treatment systems holding a NJPDES/DGW permit that monitor flow only and were built under N.J.A.C. 7:9A with local administrative authority oversight.
• Public wastewater collection systems the Department determines consist of one establishment or building complex under N.J.A.C. 7:14A-23 with no more than one gravity lateral connection.

Exam Trap Alert: An oil/water separator is not automatically exempt. It is exempt only when it is API-approved or equivalent and treats stormwater alone. An oil/water separator handling commingled process wastewater is a licensed NS (or N) system.