General Site Certification

General Site Certification

Without question, this is the largest pool of people requiring HAZWOPER certification. This may change as the contaminated sites are slowly remediated. These contaminated sites are placed on the National Priority List (NPL) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and are scheduled for clean-up. The responsible party as identified in the EPA regulations - usually the site owner or past occupant - must pay for the clean-up costs. The types of training for the general site worker are as follows: 40 Hour, 24 Hour, 8 Hour Annual Refresher, 8 Hour Site Supervisor, and Incident Command.

The standard is performance-based, and the type of training will need to meet the job function. For the training titles listed, the 40 hour course is designed for workers who are exposed to hazardous materials above the OSHA Permissible Exposure Level (PEL). Once work conditions exceed the PEL, respiratory protection is required. The 24 hour course is designed for workers who have a temporary or short work task at a HAZWOPER site. Usually, these workers are not exposed to hazardous substances or materials above the PEL, and no respiratory protection is required. An 8 hour refresher is required for both the 40 hour and 24 hour designations. Failure to receive the annual refresher can involve the lapse of certification and associated non-compliance status from OSHA. OSHA regulations also require that at least one person per work group have the 8 hour supervisor training. The incident commander session is usually reserved for emergency response, but can sometimes be invoked for a HAZWOPER site.