Who may prepare a stormwater plan in Massachusetts

Massachusetts requires a credentialed preparer only in some cases. Plan scope rather than acreage: Attaches when a project is subject to the MassDEP Stormwater Management Standards under the Wetlands Protection Act, 310 CMR 10.05(6)(k)-(q) — stormwater discharge within an Area Subject to Protection or the 100-ft Buffer Zone, filed via Notice of Intent (or 401 Water Quality Certification). Exempt per 310 CMR 10.05(6)(l): single-family homes; 4-lot/4-unit-or-fewer projects with no discharge affecting a critical area; emergency road/drainage repairs..

What triggers it: Plan scope rather than acreage: Attaches when a project is subject to the MassDEP Stormwater Management Standards under the Wetlands Protection Act, 310 CMR 10.05(6)(k)-(q) — stormwater discharge within an Area Subject to Protection or the 100-ft Buffer Zone, filed via Notice of Intent (or 401 Water Quality Certification). Exempt per 310 CMR 10.05(6)(l): single-family homes; 4-lot/4-unit-or-fewer projects with no discharge affecting a critical area; emergency road/drainage repairs..

The bare CMR text (310 CMR 10.05(6)(k)-(q), the ten Stormwater Management Standards) contains no PE requirement; the only PE language in the regulation itself is the unrelated, explicitly discretionary 310 CMR 10.05(6)(h) ('issuing authority may require... when in its judgment the complexity... warrants'). The real, mandatory RPE requirement lives in the Massachusetts Stormwater Handbook, Vol. 3 Ch. 1, which 310 CMR 10.05(6)(k) expressly incorporates by reference to define compliance with the Standards — a genuine mandate tied to a specific licensing statute (M.G.L. c. 112 Section 81R), not a discretionary or checklist-level convention, though it is Handbook guidance incorporated by reference rather than literal CMR regulatory text. The MassDEP Stormwater Report Checklist (the previously cited source) merely operationalizes this pre-existing Handbook mandate; it did not create it. This is a state-layer requirement, separate from the federal 2022 CGP, which imposes no SWPPP preparer credential.