1. (a) The education requirement for grade I and grade II shall be a high school diploma or HSE.
2. (b) The education requirement for grade III and grade IV shall be a high school diploma or HSE certificate and 2 years of relevant post-high school education, as described in (c) through (g), below.

3. (c) Relevant post-high school education shall include the following:

   1. (1) For programs in sanitary engineering, environmental technology or science, water treatment, or wastewater treatment, a bachelor’s degree shall be counted as 4 years of relevant education and an associate’s degree shall be counted as 2 years of relevant education; and
   2. (2) For programs in other relevant technical and scientific disciplines, such as natural sciences and non-sanitary engineering, a bachelor’s degree shall be counted as 3 years of relevant education and an associate’s degree shall be counted as 1.5 years of relevant education.

4. (d) Partial credit toward relevant post-high school education requirements shall be allowed for academic work or vocational training, as follows:

   1. (1) Any bachelor’s degrees other than those listed in (c), above, shall be counted as 2 years of relevant education; and
   2. (2) Any associates degree of other than those listed in (c), above shall be counted as one year of relevant education.
5. (e) Incomplete degree programs shall be counted as described in (f), below.
6. (f) Each 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours of credits earned in programs listed in (c), above, shall be considered the equivalent of one year of post-high school education.

7. (g) The applicant may request substitutions for one year of required education based on the following criteria:

   1. (1) Two years of operating experience may be substituted for one year of the post-high school education requirement for grades III and IV;
   2. (2) One year of operating experience as an OIRC in a grade II wastewater treatment plant or higher, may be substituted for one year of the education requirement;
   3. (3) Operating experience applied in substitution for any education requirement shall not also be applied to the experience requirement; and
   4. (4) Specialized operator training courses, seminars, workshops, and approved technical conferences, and relevant Military Operational Specialties (MOS) training may be substituted for post-high school education provided that the calculation shall be one TCH for every hour of approved training.

Source. (See Revision Note #1 at part heading for Env-Wq 304) #10392, eff 8-1-13; ss by #13755, eff 9-27-23 (formerly Env-Wq 304.09) (see Revision Note #2 at part heading for Env-Wq 304)