PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management will offer a licensing examination for Class IV soil evaluators on Thursday, June 29. The exam will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at a place to be announced, and will have both a written and a field component. A pre-examination training session will be held on Thursday, June 8, from 9 a.m. to noon at DEM headquarters in Providence. Applications to take the exam must be received at DEM no later than Friday, June 2. Seating for both the training and the exam sessions is by pre-registration only.

A Class IV license will be required for all soil evaluations beginning in January 2001, one year after the first Class IV licenses were granted. Another examination session will be offered in the fall.

The 1997 Individual Sewage Disposal System (ISDS) regulations call for soil evaluations to be performed as part of a comprehensive site evaluation process for installation of new septic systems. Soil evaluations will improve the siting of septic systems and ensure that their location and design are based on scientific analysis of the sites, particularly of the soils. The soils-based approach concentrates DEM's efforts on the suitability of a site for sewage treatment and disposal prior to initiating detailed design work.

Applicants for the Class IV exam must be registered as professional soil scientists, or have a combination of experience and education that includes a minimum of nine semester hours in soil science from an accredited university. Over the past two and a half years, DEM has worked with the University of Rhode Island to offer soils courses targeted to professionals. In addition, a special course was created to apply soil science to the siting and design of septic systems.

Applications for the exam (in Adobe Acrobat format) are available on DEM's website at http://www.dem.state.ri.us/regs/water/isdsivap.pdf. Individuals may also contact Deb Knauss at DEM by e-mail at dknauss@dem.state.ri.us or by phone at 222-4700 ext. 7612 for an application or additional information.