1. (a) Wastewater treatment facilities shall be classified in accordance with the following criteria.

   1. (1) any Category D facility incorporating anaerobic sludge digestion (Imhoff tanks with sludge drawn off to drying beds are not considered anaerobic digestors as far as this requirement is concerned);
   2. (2) any Category D facility whose permit requires nutrient reduction; or
   3. (3) any Category D facility whose permit requires the final effluent to meet a daily average BOD[sub]5[/sub] or TSS concentration less than 10 mg/liter.

   * As shown in Category D, wastewater treatment facilities shall be reclassified as Category C facilities if any of the following conditions exist:

2. (b) A wastewater treatment facility having a combination of treatment processes which are in different categories shall be assigned the higher category.
3. (c) The executive director may increase the treatment facility classification that is indicated in subsection (a) of this section for those facilities which in the judgment of the executive director include unusually complex processes or which present unusual operation or maintenance conditions.

4. (d) The chief operator or operator in responsible charge of each wastewater treatment facility shall possess a certificate at least as high as that of the category of treatment facility.

   1. (1) Category D facilities shall be operated by a Class D operator or an operator certified at a higher level.
   2. (2) Category C facilities shall be operated by a Class C operator or an operator certified at a higher level.
   3. (3) Category B facilities shall be operated by a Class B operator or an operator certified at a higher level.
   4. (4) Category A facilities shall be operated by a Class A operator.
5. (e) Where shift operation of the wastewater treatment facility is necessary, each shift which does not have the on-site supervision of the chief operator must be supervised by an operator who is certified at not less than one level below the category of the plant.
6. (f) When a permittee's chief operator or operator in responsible charge leaves the employment of the permittee, the permittee will take prompt and diligent action to either upgrade the level of certification of existing operators or employ a qualified and properly certified operator.

Source Note:The provisions of this §325.4 adopted to be effective March 16, 1990, 15 TexReg 1174.