The Best HAZWOPER Jobs And Training Info In The Whole The USA…

Watch these scenes from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989, and notice the oil spill workers in action using HAZWOPER protocol (to some extent) for the handling of the toxic crude.

While you’re watching the video,  just keep in mind that the Gulf oil spill caused by BP’s reckless negligence is at least 10 times bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill at the present time (almost 3 months after the leak started.)  And it’s still growing.  It hasn’t stopped!

This is a GIGANTIC Oil Spill problem.  And it will call for GIGANTIC workforce deployment to clean it up and protect the coasts from what’s still out at sea waiting to come to shore.

If you don’t already know it yet, practically ALL jobs that require you to come into proximity (get near) of oil spill contamination require at least the 8 hour HAZWOPER certification or the 4 hour “yellow card” certification.  (It’s also called the “4 Hour HAZWOPER” class in some circles.)

Generally speaking, for the laborer the requirements vary.  But for the the higher up in management and supervisory position you are, the more HAZWOPER training you’ll be expected to have:  like the 24 hour HAZWOPER course or more likely the 40 hour HAZWOPER course.

(And, you know, thank goodness you have to be trained before you handle this awful, dangerous contaminant being found from Texas all the way to the Atlantic coast of North Florida.  All you’re looking for is a good job — not to get sick from improper exposure hazardous material.  That’s what HAZWOPER training is all about:  teaching you how to work with it safely for the long-term.  Who knows, you just might be working in it for the long-term – as a career move – so, learning HAZWOPER is not just for health security but it’s for job security.)

HAZWOPER Certification and Oil Spill Job Requirements

From what my sources tell me, the strictness of this requirement is being enforced much more now with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill than with the Alaskan oil spill 21 years ago.  In fact, it’s a near-100% enforcement.  Therefore, if you don’t have an up-to-date HAZWOPER certification, then you are unemployable in the oil spill job market.

Now, if you luck upon some companies that are providing free training, Congratulations!  Unfortunately, those job offers are getting less and less common (even in just the past few days), and employers are requiring that you already have your HAZWOPER training prior to getting hired.

Between you and me, I’m even surprised how quickly employers are cutting out the free HAZWOPER training.  Are these yet more BP-inspired budget trimming moves?   I don’t know…

I hope you’re taking notes if your goal is to work some oil spill job in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, or Florida.  Whether you’re a laborer or an oil spill supervisor or any position that may have you go near the oil itself, you most likely will need HAZWOPER training before you are hired.

That said, the demand for new and experienced HAZWOPER-certified is likely to only keep rising…even for the next 10, 20, or more years.  (See this post on the growing oil spill job boom for more info.)

The oil isn’t going away.  In fact, they’re still actively cleaning it up in Alaska 21 years later (!) and some beaches are still covered in the slick, black oil (! again) like the Exxon Valdez spill its contents just yesterday.  That’s amazing to me.  It also lets you and me both know that the prospect of these HAZWOPER / oil spill jobs being in more and more demand is practically unstoppable.

HAZWOPER’s Roots Go Back To The 1940s

First, it is a variation on the root word HAZWOP used from the mid to late 1940s. HAZWOP stands for “Hazardous Waste Operations.”  This designation was the U.S. military’s protocol used on military sites and bases after World War II to properly and safely clean up dangerous materials left behind after active war operations had ceased.  This included things like disposing of leftovers from the Manhattan Project: America’s first nuclear weapons program. At that time, HAZWOP was a strictly military program.

TRINITY Test: 1st Atomic Bomb 0.016 Seconds After Detonation

Then, in the 1970s, two major public HAZMAT disasters took place:

The Love Canal and The Valley of the Drums

1.  1976 – The Love Canal event in Niagara Falls, NY – where it was discovered that a school, entire neighborhood, and sewer system were built on and into the site of a chemical waste dump that was in operation from 1947 to 1953.  The dump contained 21,000 tons (that’s right 21 thousand!) of chemical toxic waste.  Finally, years of strangely ill health, birth defects, miscarriages were understood.

(This was the public and governmental primer to action,

but the next event was the straw that broke the camels back.)

2.  1979 – The Valley of the Drums in Northern Kentucky near Louisville where an unregulated toxic waste dump (of poorly kept “drums”) got so bad and leaking that government officials realized new laws needed to be created to handle the exponentially growing need for safer toxic waste disposal.

Today’s HAZWOPER Is Born In 1984

So, headed by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) with major input from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and various other alphabet soup federal agencies, HAZWOPER as we know it today was born in 1984 with the publication of the “Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Guidance Manual.”

By 1990, the use of the term “HAZWOPER” came into official being and usage as the “HAZWOPER Standard” with the latest HAZWOPER publication (OSHA publication 1910.120 subpart H).

HAZWOPPER and HAZWOPER Jobs

The BP Oil Spill is the biggest thing to happen in a while for HAZWOPER certified HAZMAT workers.  And in the middle of the biggest recession / depression in many decades, it is definitely a “lemons into lemonade” situation for those that have been out of a job or aren’t happy with their current job.

There are new and exciting job prospects all the way around the Gulf of Mexico, and new HAZWOPER job positions are opening up constantly in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

Even better is:  No Experience Required for a lot of these new, good-paying and good-benefits positions.

What Kind Of Jobs Are Available Right Now? Read the rest of this entry »