Front Range Training & Consulting is now on the Colorado Eligible Training Provider List allowing eligible students to access Workforce Investment Act (WIA) funds to assist in paying for this UXO Tech 1 course.

Visit the Colorado Workforce website

Who Qualifies for Career Transition Services?

- Laid off or received a notice of layoff from employment due to no fault of your own and eligible for or receiving unemployment insurance or
- Age 22+ and considered to be low-income by federally established guidelines or
- Self-employed and in the process of going out of business or
- A full-time homemaker who has been dependent on the income of another family member but is no longer supported by that income; and is unemployed or
- Laid off from a Trade Adjustment Act (TAA) certified employer

Larimer County residents can visit the Larimer CountyWorkforce website
to learn more about their Career Transition Program

According to US Environmental Protection Agency documents released in late 2002, UXO at 16,000 domestic inactive military ranges within the United States pose an “imminent and substantial” public health risk and could require the largest environmental cleanup ever, at a cost of at least $14 billion. It costs roughly $1,000 to demolish a UXO on site. UXO cleanup in the US involves over 10 million acres (40,000 km2) of land and 1,400 different sites. Some individual ranges cover 500 square miles (1,300 km2), and, taken together, the ranges comprise an area the size of Florida.

According to the EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL) Sites by State the top five states with the largest number of active sites are: California, Washington, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Alaska, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.

UXOinfo.com also maintains a list of UXO sites in the US.

Front Range Training is willing to offer a payment plan for UXO Tech 1 course tuition for those in financial need. A deposit of $1,000 is required to reserve your spot in the course regardless of how you decide to pay the balance of the tuition. If you do not expect to be able to pay the remaining balance of $4,750 by completion of the course, you may opt to enter the payment plan. You must opt into this plan at least 2 weeks before of the end of the course. Upon opting into the payment plan the student must:

a) pay a non-refundable administrative fee of $800

b) provide bank account information for collection of tuition.

c) provide a credit card with an available balance of at least $2,000 as backup for collection of tuition.

d) sign payment plan contract

The OSHA HAZWOPER Certification may also be rolled into this payment plan an additional $100.00 up-front, and an additional $80.00 non-refundable administrative fee.
This allows a student to pay only $1,800.00 up-front to take the course and repay the balance of $4750 over the next 13 months, for a total of 6550.00 for the UXO Tech 1 course. To include the OSHA HAZWOPER Certification course, the up-front cost would be $1980.00, with a balance of $5,150 paid over 11 months of payments (10 @ $500, and the 11th at $150) and a total amount paid of $7,200.

The terms of this payment plan are as follows:
You will be given a 90-day grace period starting at completion of the course before we will collect tuition payments. This is intended to allow you time to secure a job in the UXO field.
On the 91st day after completion of the course, and on the same date of each following month, we will automatically collect a payment of $500.00 directly from your bank account until the balance of the tuition is paid. This is a total of 10 payments, the last of which will be $250.00; if the HAZWOPER Certification course is included, 11 payments, the last of which will be $150.00. If we are unable collect the amount from your bank, you will be contacted. If you are unable to make a sufficient payment within 15 days of the failed payment, we will attempt to collect the payment via the credit card provided, as noted above. Failed payments are subject to a $25.00 fee at the discretion of Front Range Training. If we are unable to collect full payments owed for 90 consecutive days your account will be turned over to a collection agency and associated negative feedback submitted to credit agencies. Furthermore, if tuition payments are unable to be collected, we reserve the right to revoke a student’s Certification as a UXO Tech 1, thus preventing them from working in the field until tuition payments are complete.

We offer this payment plan to allow individuals without the means to pay for the course up-front to pursue this exciting career and repay the tuition in a reasonable amount of time after training. The $500 per month may sounds like a lot now, but it is only 8% of average gross monthly pay for a UXO Tech 1.
A student may choose to pay the balance of their tuition earlier than the 90 days plus 10 months schedule if they so choose. Because there is no interest being charged or any time-related fees, this option would merely provide the student peace of mind that they had satisfied their debt.

EOD Technologies, Inc. has an excellent safety record. Their Experience Modification Ratio is 0.83, well below the industry average of 1.00.

American Technologies, Inc. (ATI) has removed and recycled over 5.8 million pounds of MEC scrap material from Fort Irwin’s ranges, cleared over 2,491 square kilometers, discovered 378,363 live ordnance items, and demilitarized over 25,467 ordnance items for recycling.

They have had ZERO explosive related accidents. In fact, their Fort Irwin site currently has over 1,000 days with out a lost time accident and still counting…

Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) are any explosive devices (bombs, bullets, shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, etc.) that did not explode as intended when employed. Hundreds of thousands of these UXO items exist worldwide and continue to pose a potentially lethal risk to this day, some even after many decades of lying dormant. Much UXO remains in former and active combat zones worldwide, as well as on millions of acres of training sites domestically. UXO is disposed of by highly-trained professional civilian Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) professionals.

Unexploded ordnance from at least as far back as the American Civil War still poses a hazard worldwide, both in current and former combat areas and on military firing ranges. One major problem with unexploded ordnance is that over the years the detonator and main charge deteriorate, frequently making them more sensitive to disturbance, and therefore more dangerous to handle. There are countless examples of civilians tampering with unexploded ordnance that is many years old – often with fatal results. Believing it to be harmless they handle the device and it explodes, killing or severely injuring them. For this reason it is universally recommended that unexploded ordnance should not be touched or handled by unqualified persons. Instead, the location should be reported to the local police so that EOD professionals can render it safe.

As recently as December 2007, construction areas outside Orlando, Florida discovered UXO in new development areas and had to halt construction efforts.[4] Other areas nearby, including UXO in the Indian River Lagoon[5] thought to be left from live bombing runs performed during WWII by pilots from nearby DeLand Naval Air Station have long been avoided by local boaters for fear of accidentally striking UXO as they motor by.

Average annual compensation for a UXO Tech 1 is approximately $76,000*.

Base pay is typically $18-24 per hour.

In addition to base pay, UXO Tech 1’s typically collect 8% hazard compensation and the tax free Per Diem and Lodging. Typical Per Diem and Lodging in accordance with the JTR (approx. $130/day). Normal work weeks, many times, are 50 hours. This means 10 hours a week are at an overtime rate.

Total starting compensation: $52,199 – 99,504.

*Based on a average 43-hour work week, 45 working weeks of the year.

(Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response)

The HAZWOPER standard covers 5 specific areas of operations, including:

-Clean-up operations required by a governmental body, whether Federal, state local or other involving hazardous substances that are conducted at uncontrolled hazardous waste sites (including, but not limited to, the EPA’s National Priority Site List (NPL), state priority site lists, sites recommended for the EPA NPL, and initial investigations of government identified sites which are conducted before the presence or absence of hazardous substances has been ascertained);

-Corrective actions involving clean-up operations at sites covered by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) as amended (42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq);

-Voluntary clean-up operations at sites recognized by Federal, state, local or other governmental bodies as uncontrolled hazardous waste sites;

-Operations involving hazardous waste that are conducted at treatment, storage, disposal (TSD) facilities regulated by 40 CFR Parts 264 and 265 pursuant to RCRA; or by agencies under agreement with U.S.E.P.A. to implement RCRA regulations; and

-Emergency response operations for releases of, or substantial threats of releases of, hazardous substances without regard to the location of the hazard.
Training

OSHA recognizes several levels of training, based on the work the employee will be performing and the level of hazard they will be facing. Each level requires a different training program, and OSHA specifies topics and minimum training times. Training requirements outlined include the standard 40 hour off site and 3 day on site, the 24 hour occasional worker, 8 hour supervisor, and the 8 hour refresher training. The various training requirements are outlined below:

-Standard 40 hour (off site) and 3 day (on site)All Workers

-HAZWOPER requires that all workers on a UXO site (not just UXO Technicians)have a minimum 40-hour instruction (off site)and 3 days supervised field experience and 8 hours of refresher training annually.

-Occasional Workers

-Workers on site only occasionally for a specific limited task and who are unlikely to be exposed over permissible exposure limits and published exposure limits shall receive a minimum of 24 hours of instruction off the site, and one day of supervised hands on training.

-Supervisor Training

-Managers and supervisors require the same level of training as the people they supervise 40 hours and the three days of supervised field experience and at least eight additional hours of specialized training on such topics as the employer’s safety and health program, personal protective equipment program, spill containment program, and health hazard monitoring procedure and techniques.

-Refresher Training

-Employees and managers/supervisors need to receive eight hours of refresher training annually.

-Equivalent training

Employers who can show by documentation or certification that an employee’s work experience and/or training has resulted in training equivalent to that training required shall not be required to provide the initial training requirements. However, certified employees or employees with equivalent training new to a site shall receive appropriate, site specific training before site entry and have appropriate supervised field experience at the new site. Equivalent training includes any academic training or the training that existing employees might have already received from actual hazardous waste site experience. Currently, in accordance with the guidance from the Department of the Army Office for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health,completion of EOD school meets the training requirements of HAZWOPER.

There are many sources for OSHA compliant HAZWOPER training. Community colleges, labor unions, employers, and training companies are all good sources for training. The employer must ensure the training provider covers the areas of knowledge required by the standard and provide certification to the student that they have passed the training. A rising trend in HAZWOPER training is computer and web based training. These courses may be adequate to satisfy part of the OSHA requirements; however, the 40 hour general worker training and the 8 hour refresher both require some hands on training and evaluation.This makes computer based training, particularly the online variety, an incomplete solution.

The UXO Technician I assists fully qualified personnel (UXO Technician II and above)
in the following functions:

-Reconnaissance and classification of UXO
-Identify all types of military munitions, including possible fuses and their condition, armed or unarmed
-Excavate subsurface UXO
-Move and/or consolidate UXO that has been determined safe to move within a controlled area, but not over public traffic routes
-Transport demolition materials and/or UXO that have been determined safe for transport over authorized routes, when required
-Prepare firing systems, both electric and non-electric, for demolition / demilitarization operations
-Operate personnel decontamination stations
-Assist in the inspection of material that potentially presents an explosive hazard
-Properly store explosive materials per applicable guidance
-Perform field collection procedures to identify contaminated soil
-Operate authorized modes of transport for transporting UXO, for which the risk of movement has been determined acceptable, when appropriate

Register for UXO Tech 1 Training at uxotech.com