Inspection agencies must assure borrowers that employees assigned to the inspection of timber products and preservative treatments are competent and experienced. In general, any of the following examples are considered as minimum qualifying experience before an individual may be permitted to inspect timber products for borrowers:

(a) Three years of direct experience inspecting untreated and treated utility products; or

(b) Three years of direct experience conducting in-plant quality control work at a treating plant producing treated utility products; or

(c) Under the direct supervision of an experienced, qualified inspector, the individual shall have performed the following:

(1) For poles, inspected at least 10,000 individual untreated poles, and checked preservative penetration on at least 3,000 individual poles;

(2) For crossarms, inspected at least 5,000 individual untreated arms and checked penetration on at least 500 individual arms;

(3) Conducted at least 100 retention assays, including at least 25 analyses for each different preservative treatment being inspected.

(d) In both paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section, the experience should be not less than that required in paragraph (c) of this section.

(e) Individuals involved in the inspection of more than one commodity must have the minimum experience required in paragraph (c) of this section for each respective product.

[84 FR 28200, June 18, 2019]