I am a licensed soil scientist and Virginia Certified Professional Geologist.  I've been providing professional consulting services for over 31 years for septic system design as well as soil and ground water site characterization studies and remediation for petroleum releases in Virginia.  There's a growing demand for soil scientist professionals for conducting soil vapor intrusion studies for petroleum releases at commercial and residential properties.  The USEPA and Virginia DEQ have recently adopted new guidelines and requirements for soil vapor intrusion modeling for sites where volatile organic compounds have been released into the soil.  The modeling parameters require full knowledge of soil science for these risk assessments to be completed.  This is also the case for conducting soil characterization studies for CERCLA sites under the Virginia Unified Risk Assessment Model.  It would be very detrimental to Virginia to eliminate this professional credential verification when there's an increasing demand for this professional knowledge and experience.