Continuing Education and Remedial Action
Continuing Education and Remedial Action
This domain covers what happens after licensure: maintaining competency through continuing education and correcting defective work through remedial action or enforcement. Exam questions often turn on deadlines, documentation, and the difference between a routine correction and a formal order.
Continuing education
Colorado’s well licensing program requires continuing education each renewal cycle; the current requirement is 12 hours per cycle. Hours must be relevant to well construction, pump installation, ground heat exchanger work, or the rules that govern them, and they must be documented. Keep certificates and course records in case DWR audits the renewal. Do not assume that hours from an unapproved or unrelated course count, and do not assume that extra hours from one cycle automatically carry into the next unless the rule allows it.
Remedial action
Remedial action is required when a well, pump installation, or GHX borehole does not comply with the rules or creates a risk to groundwater. Examples include an unsealed annulus, a failed sanitary seal, improper abandonment, a leaking loop, or construction outside permit conditions. DWR may require a corrective plan, a deadline, re-grouting, re-casing, redevelopment, disinfection, replacement, or complete abandonment. Corrective work must be done by licensed persons and documented.
Enforcement and consequences
DWR can investigate complaints, inspect work, issue notices, suspend or revoke a license, impose civil penalties, and require corrective action. Ignoring an order usually makes the outcome worse. A licensee who cannot correct a defective well may be ordered to abandon it properly.
Worked example
A licensee renews with 10 documented continuing-education hours when 12 are required. Reasoning: the renewal is short by 2 hours. The licensee should not simply submit the renewal and hope for acceptance; the deficiency must be cured with qualifying hours before the license is renewed or reinstated. If the licensee continued working after expiration, that work may also be treated as unlicensed practice.
Traps that cost marks
- Counting unrelated or undocumented continuing-education hours.
- Assuming a lapsed license can be used while reinstatement is pending.
- Treating a DWR corrective order as optional.
- Correcting a defective well without filing the required documentation.
- Using an unlicensed person to perform remedial work.