Smoke school and Certification
Certification
Where opacity readings get calibrated against reality — for observers, and for camera configurations.
What smoke school is
A smoke generator produces plumes at known opacity values, and candidates — or camera configurations — have to read them accurately enough to pass.
Observer certification
Classroom training on the principles of visible emissions
Field certification reading generated plumes at known opacity within the method's accuracy criteria
Field certification valid for six months
Opacity reading is a perishable skill. The recurring recertification is what keeps observers calibrated, and it is the cost most facilities notice first.
2024
What changed with ALT-152
EPA has since approved ALT-152 and ALT-152A, which allow a virtual reality platform to substitute for the field-certification component of Method 9. Where a state accepts it, an observer can complete field certification without travelling to a live smoke generator. The lecture requirement is unchanged, and so is the six-month clock.
This lowers the cost of keeping observers certified. It does not change what the observation produces: a number recorded by a person in the field, with no image behind it. Both routes certify a human estimate. Neither leaves a record that can be re-examined later.
The other route
Configuration certification
A camera configuration
Tested by four independent users
Across blue sky, trees and heterogeneous backgrounds
Six passing runs within a six-month window
Certification holds three and a half years
A DCOT operator
The standard visible emissions lecture course
Training specified by the equipment manufacturer
Both the configuration and the operator must be current on the observation date
We provide the manufacturer-specified training and coordinate configuration certification through the national smoke school network.