What EPA Says About Out-of-State Professional Engineers, and Where New Jersey Engineering Licensure Law May Come In
If your facility is in New Jersey and your SPCC Plan was prepared by a consultant based in another state, the Professional Engineer (PE) who certified it may not be licensed here. Most facility managers never think to check until an insurer, a lender, a new environmental manager, or an auditor looks at the certification page, sees an out-of-state license number, and asks whether that's allowed. The short answer is that EPA doesn't require the engineer to be licensed in New Jersey, but New Jersey's engineering licensure laws may have a say, and the final word on that belongs to the State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors rather than to us or to your consultant.
In this article, we'll walk through what the federal SPCC rule says about PE certification, how EPA answers the out-of-state question, and where New Jersey law may come into play, including the different rule for state DPCC and DCR plans. We'll also cover what to ask your consultant and how to confirm things with the Board. We're environmental consultants, not licensing attorneys, so this is a guide to the question and not a ruling on it. If you'd like to talk through your own situation, you're welcome to reach out to RMA.
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TL;DR
New Jersey law makes it unlawful to practice engineering in the state without a New Jersey license unless an exemption applies, and EPA itself notes that state rules can stop an out-of-state engineer from applying a seal, so confirm with your consultant first and the State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors if you still have doubts. New Jersey's state discharge prevention plans for major facilities are different, because that rule calls for an engineer licensed under New Jersey law. And whatever state the engineer is licensed in, engineers generally won't stamp a plan the facility wrote itself, so the plan is usually prepared by an environmental professional and then reviewed and certified by the engineer.
What Does the Federal SPCC Rule Say About Professional Engineer Certification?
Under 40 CFR 112.3(d), a licensed Professional Engineer has to review and certify an SPCC Plan for it to be effective, with one big exception. Qualified facilities, which are generally smaller sites with 10,000 gallons or less of oil storage capacity and a limited spill history, can self-certify their plans instead. We cover who qualifies, and when a PE is needed even for a smaller site, in our article on Professional Engineers and SPCC Plan requirements. For everyone else, the PE certification is part of what makes the plan count.
By signing the certification, the engineer attests to five things: that they're familiar with the requirements of Part 112, that they or an agent have visited and examined the facility, that the plan follows good engineering practice including applicable industry standards, that procedures for required inspections and testing have been established, and that the plan is adequate for the facility. The certification doesn't take the owner or operator off the hook, either. You're still responsible for preparing and fully implementing the plan. The engineer also comes back into the picture later, because technical amendments to the plan need PE certification and the whole plan gets a review at least every five years, as we explain in our guide to SPCC Plan 5-year reviews.
In practice, that review usually comes at the end of the process. An environmental professional typically prepares the plan, and sometimes makes the site visit, and then the engineer reviews the finished plan and certifies it. We'll come back to how that works in the consultant section below.
The rule says a licensed engineer. It doesn't say licensed where, and that gap is what the rest of this article is about.
Does EPA Require the SPCC Plan Engineer to Be Licensed in the Same State?
EPA answers this directly in a frequently asked question on its website, PE certifying an SPCC plan in a different state. The federal rule doesn't require the engineer to be registered or licensed in the same state as the facility, and EPA's reasoning is that the SPCC program is national in scope, so state-specific expertise isn't necessary. If that were the whole answer, an out-of-state engineer would be a non-issue for a New Jersey facility.
It isn't the whole answer, and EPA says so in the same FAQ. States can set requirements that are stricter than EPA's, and EPA suggests an engineer familiarize themselves with any state requirements and address them in the plan. A violation of engineering ethics can be handled by the licensing board of the engineer's own state, no matter where the work was done. And EPA states plainly that although the SPCC regulations don't require in-state licensure, state regulations may preclude an engineer from applying their seal if they aren't licensed in that state.
EPA has a second FAQ on PE certification and applying a PE's seal that points the same direction. For a certification to be effective for SPCC purposes, EPA says it has to be completed in accordance with the law of the state where the engineer is working, and some states require a seal while others don't. EPA's wording refers to the state where the engineer is working. For an engineer who reviews a plan from an office in another state but visits a New Jersey facility, which state that means isn't something we'd want to guess at.
There's also a practical reason this question slips through. EPA enforces the SPCC rule in New Jersey through Region 2, while the NJDEP doesn't administer it, and the Board that licenses engineers is a third body. In our experience those agencies don't usually compare notes, which is covered in our article on who enforces SPCC Plans. A plan can sit for years without anyone asking about the engineer's license. That doesn't mean the question has been answered.
How Does New Jersey Engineering Licensure Law Come Into Play for SPCC Plans?
New Jersey's engineering licensing statute, N.J.S.A. 45:8-27, makes it unlawful to practice or offer to practice professional engineering in the state, or to use the title of professional engineer, without a New Jersey license, subject to exemptions we'll get to in a moment. The Board's own FAQ is direct about out-of-state engineers. Being licensed in another state doesn't make someone licensed in New Jersey, and the Board's enabling legislation doesn't include reciprocity with any state or a grandfather clause. An engineer licensed elsewhere has to apply to the Board and meet its requirements. The FAQ also says corporations offering engineering services in New Jersey generally need a Certificate of Authorization, with exceptions for certain professional service corporations and similar entities. That's a separate question from whether the individual engineer holds a license.
Is Certifying an SPCC Plan the Practice of Engineering in New Jersey?
This is where the question gets harder. As far as we can tell, the Board's published rules don't mention SPCC plans by name, so whether an out-of-state engineer's certification of a federal spill plan for a New Jersey facility counts as practicing engineering here is a question for the Board. Boards in other states haven't all answered it the same way. Kentucky's engineering board, for example, addresses SPCC plans in its FAQ. In our experience contacting licensing boards around the country, the answer on out-of-state engineers has leaned toward "licensed in this state," though some boards hadn't thought about the question before we asked. An answer from one state tells you very little about another.
Do New Jersey's Engineering Licensure Exemptions Apply to SPCC Plan Certification?
The exemptions are in N.J.A.C. 13:40-3.2, and two of them come up most often with out-of-state engineers. One lets a nonresident with no New Jersey place of business practice for no more than 30 days in a calendar year if they're legally qualified in a state with comparable licensing requirements, but it comes with a condition that the engineer doesn't submit final plans or reports. The other covers a nonresident who practices for longer after filing a licensure application with the Board and paying the fees, and it lasts only while the Board considers that application. The rule also exempts certain employees and people working on property they own or lease, with limits where public safety, health, or welfare is involved.
We'd be careful about assuming any of these fits a signed SPCC certification, since a certification is a final document, but that's a judgment for the Board and not for us. Rules get amended, so read the current text or ask the Board before relying on our summary.
What About New Jersey DPCC and DCR Plans for Major Facilities?
New Jersey adds its own layer for facilities that store large quantities of petroleum and other hazardous substances. Under N.J.A.C. 7:1E, those sites are called major facilities, and their owners must prepare a Discharge Prevention, Containment, and Countermeasure (DPCC) plan and a Discharge Cleanup and Removal (DCR) plan and submit them to the NJDEP for approval. Whether your facility counts as a major facility depends on its total storage capacity and what it stores, so check the rule against your own inventory.
For these plans, the state rule speaks to licensure directly. N.J.A.C. 7:1E-4.11(e) says a DPCC plan or plan renewal, or an amendment for a change requiring sound engineering practice, must include a certification from a professional engineer licensed under N.J.S.A. 45:8-27 et seq. That's the New Jersey engineering licensing law, so for a DPCC plan the rule's own wording points to a New Jersey license. Read the current text of the rule when you're working through it, since the NJDEP has proposed changes to the discharge prevention rules in recent years.
Many facilities fold their federal SPCC Plan and their state plans into one document. In our experience, facilities in that position usually have an engineer involved already, and a New Jersey-licensed engineer on a combined plan takes the licensure question off the table for the SPCC portion. Whether a particular combined document needs anything more depends on how it's built. Our article on SPCC Plans in New Jersey explains how the federal and state pieces relate.
What Should You Ask an Out-of-State SPCC Consultant About PE Licensure?
It helps to know how PE-certified plans usually come together. Some consulting firms have a PE on staff, and others work closely with a trusted outside engineer, and both setups are common. What you won't often find is an engineer who will simply review a plan and stamp it. The engineer is attesting that the information in the plan is accurate and is putting a license on the line, so a PE generally expects the plan to have been prepared by an environmental professional they can rely on. If you wrote your own plan and hope to hand it to an outside engineer for a stamp, expect that to be a hard sell. The rule cares that a licensed engineer reviews and approves the plan, whoever does the legwork before that.
Start by asking who is certifying your plan and whether that person holds a New Jersey license. If they do, ask for the license number so you can verify it with the Board. If they don't, ask how the consultant has handled New Jersey licensure on previous New Jersey plans and whether they've confirmed their approach with the Board. A good consultant will have an answer ready and won't be bothered that you asked.
Ask about the site visit too, because the federal certification covers that regardless of licensure. The engineer doesn't always make the visit personally. Another environmental professional can examine the facility, and the engineer reviews and certifies the plan at the end, which the rule allows for when it refers to the engineer or an agent. Remote SPCC development can work well, and we explain how it works in our guide to remote SPCC development, but someone still has to have examined the facility. It's also worth asking whether the consulting firm holds a Certificate of Authorization if it's offering engineering services in New Jersey, and who will recertify technical amendments later. A low quote isn't proof of a problem, but it's a reason to ask who is certifying the plan, where that person is licensed, and whether anyone is visiting your site. Our article on hiring an SPCC Plan consultant goes through what a good engagement looks like.
The table below summarizes where the questions land in the situations we see most often.
| Situation |
What the federal SPCC rule says |
What to confirm for a New Jersey facility |
| Qualified facility self-certifying its plan |
No PE is required. The owner can self-certify under 40 CFR 112.6. |
Some state boards take a different view of self-certification, so ask the Board if you want certainty. |
| PE-certified plan, engineer licensed in New Jersey |
A licensed PE must certify, and licensure is met. |
The license number, the site visit, and the seal. |
| PE-certified plan, engineer licensed only in another state |
EPA says the PE doesn't have to be licensed in the facility's state. |
Whether New Jersey law lets that engineer certify and seal for this facility, whether any exemption fits, and whether the firm needs a Certificate of Authorization. |
| DPCC and DCR plans for a major facility |
Not a federal requirement. It's a state rule. |
N.J.A.C. 7:1E-4.11(e) calls for a PE licensed under New Jersey's engineering licensing law. |
How Do You Confirm SPCC PE Licensure Rules With the New Jersey Board?
Ask your consultant first, and ask in writing so you have the answer on file. If you still want certainty, contact the New Jersey State Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, which sits within the Division of Consumer Affairs. Describe your situation specifically: a facility in New Jersey, a federal SPCC Plan certified by an engineer licensed in another state, whether that engineer visited the site, and what the certification covered. Keep a copy of whatever the Board tells you. The Board's FAQ page is a good place to start, and EPA keeps a list of state engineering licensing boards if you need to reach the board in your engineer's home state as well.
If your current plan was certified by an out-of-state engineer, there's no reason to panic. Ask the questions above, get the answer you need, and if the Board says something that changes the picture, you can address it at your next technical amendment or five-year review, or sooner if a lender, insurer, or auditor is waiting on it. We'd rather you sort it out on your own schedule than in the middle of an EPA inspection or after a spill. If the Board's answer is unclear or a real dispute comes up, an attorney who handles professional licensing matters is the right person to advise you, since we can't give legal opinions.
How Can RMA Help With SPCC Plan PE Certification Questions?
We've been helping facilities with SPCC Plans since 1992, and we're based in New Jersey, so the NJDEP's programs and the state's engineering rules are familiar ground for us. We can help you work out whether your plan needs a PE at all, since many smaller facilities can self-certify under the federal rule. When a PE is needed, we can help get the plan prepared and in front of a licensed engineer for review and certification, and we can review an existing plan's certification and help you put the right questions to the Board. We don't decide licensing questions, because the Board does, and if your consultant can show you a New Jersey license number and a documented site visit, you may not need anything more from us on this topic.
If you'd like a second set of eyes on your plan or just want to talk it through, there's no pressure and no obligation. You can call us, email us, or fill out the form on our website, and you can contact RMA whenever it suits you.
