Regulating regulators in Florida

The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) is tasked by the state's legislature, to develop and maintain a comprehensive program to ensure that onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems (OSTDS) under their jurisdiction are permitted and installed in a manner which preserves public health and prevents the contamination of both groundwater and surface water (F.S. 381.0065(3)). Compliance with this directive is established through the Department's enforcement of Chapter 381, Florida Statutes (FS) and Rule 10D-6, Florida Administrative Code (FAC). In 1993, this directive was expanded to require the Department to ensure that individuals responsible for regulating the OSTDS program establish their competence. Therefore, effective September 21, 1994, Florida mandated that, unless specifically exempted or licensed by other state agencies, all persons performing environmental health and sanitary evaluations in a primary environmental health program be certified by the FDOH. In section 381.0101, FS, OSTDS program work is included in the definition of primary programs. Individuals are exempted from certification requirements upon application and verification that they were working in the OSTDS field prior to the effective date. Consistent with this, 448 state regulators applied for and were awarded exemption status. Even though the amount of exempted regulators were expected to decrease over time, the state initiated an employee standardization process to insure that all regulators remain technically proficient. There are no exemptions from the standardization process.