No new objectives beyond T3; the shift is in weighting. Regulations and administrative duties rise to 35 of 100 questions.
California's certificate for running a drinking water treatment plant.
Start studying T4| Content area | questions of 100 | |
|---|---|---|
| Source Water | 15 | |
| Water Treatment Processes | 20 | |
| Operation / Maintenance | 15 | |
| Laboratory Procedures | 15 | |
| Regulations / Administrative Duties | 35 |
54% of examinees passed (99 of 184) from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Source: SWRCB Drinking Water Operator Certification Program, Water Treatment Exam Results (through 6/30/2026). The agency updates these tables every six months.
Administrative duties: energy budget · an original practice item written only from publicly available sources, not a real exam question
A high-service pump draws 50 kW and runs 16 hours a day, every day of the year. At $0.18 per kWh, what should the annual energy budget line for this pump be?
D. $52,560
Daily energy = 50 kW × 16 h = 800 kWh, costing 800 × $0.18 = $144 a day. Over 365 days that is $52,560. $144 is one day, $4,320 is one 30-day month, and $37,440 budgets only 260 weekdays although the pump runs every day.
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Topic coverage follows Expected Range of Knowledge for Drinking Water Treatment Exam (SWRCB Division of Drinking Water, rev. 4/2020). Practice questions are written only from publicly available sources (that outline and the regulations and references it cites); they are not real exam questions, which are confidential. Check current application requirements, fees and exam dates on the certifying body's own page: official certification page.
Questions, flashcards, and explanations are AI-written from publicly available sources only: the exam content outlines and candidate materials each certifying body publishes without restriction, and the regulations and technical references they cite. No confidential material is used, including actual exam questions, recollections of any exam sat by the author, or any handbook or document released under a confidentiality agreement. Content is then put through repeated review — regulatory values checked against primary sources, every calculation recomputed, and errors corrected — plus spot checks by the author, who holds California water operator certifications and a California civil engineering licence. Those spot checks are sampling, not a professional review: nothing here is stamped, sealed, or offered as engineering advice, and not every item has been individually verified, so mistakes can still slip through.