Which states require a licensed professional to prepare a SWPPP?
Alabama, California, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island require a licensed professional for a 1–5 acre site state-wide, and South Carolina requires one above 2 disturbed acres.
What "licensed professional" means varies
The credential named is not the same everywhere. Some permits name a professional engineer; others accept a landscape architect, a land surveyor, a geologist, or a certification such as CPESC or CPSWQ. What they have in common is that every route to the credential starts from an existing licence or from a degree-plus-experience-plus-exam path — none of them is a course you can sit next week.
That is the line this site draws. A credential anyone can obtain by enrolling is a course requirement, and the state is still serviceable. A credential you must already hold is a gate, and we say so and stop.
Two of the nine carry a caveat worth reading
Massachusetts rests on a sentence with a known grammatical ambiguity; read at its strictest it applies state-wide, and we hold to the strict reading rather than serving a state we might be wrong about. Rhode Island's permit expires in September 2026 with a draft already out for comment, so its answer may move.
Questions people ask
- Can I use an out-of-state engineer?
- The permits that name a licence generally name it as a licence in that state. Read the clause on the state's page — it is quoted there — before you engage anyone.
- What do I do if my state is one of the nine?
- Contact a professional licensed in that state to prepare and seal the plan. We do not offer that service and we do not refer or take a commission.
The states this question turns on
- California SWPPP requirements — California requires the SWPPP to be developed by a Qualified SWPPP Developer, and QSD status presupposes an existing PE, CPESC, CPSWQ, landscape-architect or geologist credential.
- Kansas SWPPP requirements — Kansas requires the plan to be developed under the supervision of a licensed engineer, geologist, architect, landscape architect or a CPESC, with no small-site exemption.
- Massachusetts SWPPP requirements — Massachusetts attaches 310 CMR 10.00 to every construction general permit discharge, and the resulting Stormwater Report must be prepared under the direction of a Registered Professional Engineer.
- Rhode Island SWPPP requirements — Rhode Island requires the erosion and sediment control plan to be stamped and signed by a registered PE, CPESC, CPSWQ or registered landscape architect, and the stamp requirement survives the small-site filing exemption.
- South Carolina SWPPP requirements — South Carolina requires a licensed engineer, landscape architect or Tier B land surveyor to stamp the plan only above 2 disturbed acres; at or below 2 acres a sketched plan with no seal is accepted.
Other questions
- Who can prepare a SWPPP?
- Which states make you take a course before writing a SWPPP?
- Does my site need a licensed professional even though my state allows self-preparation?
- What acreage thresholds change SWPPP requirements?
- Why does my state call it something other than a SWPPP?
Check your state and build a draft
The questionnaire and the generator run in your browser. Checkout is not open, so nothing can be charged.
Source: SwpppDraft 50-state preparer-requirement table, from a scan of all 50 construction general permits, read 2026-08-03. County and city rules are not covered.
What we are, and what stays your responsibility
- SwpppDraft is a document generation tool. It does not provide engineering services, legal services, or compliance consulting, and no engineer or attorney reviews what it produces.
- Everything in the document is built from the site facts you enter. Checking that those facts are right, and that the resulting plan fits your project, is yours to do.
- We do not file anything on your behalf, we do not certify or endorse your compliance, and we accept no liability for what happens when you use the document.
- State-level requirements carry the date we verified them. County and city rules are not covered — some local jurisdictions require a licensed preparer even where the state does not, and you have to check that yourself.
- When the product opens, our total liability will be capped at the amount you paid us. Today that amount is zero, because nothing is for sale.