Louisiana Wastewater Collection Operator Certification
Program Structure
Louisiana wastewater collection system operators are certified Class 1 through Class 4, population-graded, by LDH's Bureau of Engineering Services, on the same 2-year/16-CE-hour renewal cycle as the other water/wastewater disciplines.
Inflow and Infiltration (I&I)
Louisiana collection systems — especially older systems in New Orleans and other river/coastal cities — face severe inflow and infiltration problems. The root causes are structural and geographic: a high water table, flat pipe gradients, and soft, subsiding alluvial soil cause pipe settlement and joint separation over time, letting groundwater and stormwater into the sanitary system. Frequent heavy rainfall and tropical storms compound the problem by adding large volumes of stormwater inflow during wet-weather events.
Hurricanes and Sanitar