SCM Inspection & Maintenance Online Certification - Winter 2027

Already Certified and Need to Recertify?
For information on Stormwater Inspection & Maintenance Update workshops,
please visit the UPDATE (RECERTIFICATION) website to register.

About the Workshop

Communities across the State of North Carolina must manage rainfall that runs off roads, streets and parking lots. This runoff is called stormwater. To manage stormwater, many treatment devices, called SCMs, have been built. These devices include wet retention ponds, bioretention areas, swales, stormwater wetlands, permeable pavement, rainwater harvesting systems, proprietary devices, and level spreaders. SCMs must have annual, and sometimes more frequent, inspection and maintenance to perform as intended. Maintenance includes hydrologic and water quality function, landscape functions, and consideration of impacts on human health and safety. Many communities across North Carolina are now requiring annual inspection, and, if called for, maintenance of SCMs. SCMs are not managed as standard landscape features, as they are water quality treatment devices, and specialized training is needed to perform inspection and maintenance activities.

SCM Inspection and Maintenance also presents a business opportunity for inspection by licensed professionals such as engineers and landscape architects, and maintenance by landscape and other green industry professionals. Designers will learn to design SCMs with maintenance in mind; landscapers can diversify their business to ensure year-round work in a recession-proof area of work, and suppliers of materials and technology to the stormwater industry can learn about new and existing opportunities to support the stormwater industry.

Certification Goals:

• Understand stormwater, how it affects water quality and regulations associated with it.
• Understand stormwater management devices used in North Carolina and how they function.
• Understand the inspection and maintenance requirements of each stormwater practice.

After full participation in the workshop and passing the certification exam with a score of 80% or higher, attendees will become certified in SCM Inspection & Maintenance. 

Who Should Attend

This course is recommended for the following groups of individuals:

• Commercial Landscapers
• Property Managers
• Owners
• Homeowner Associations

• Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Professional Landscape Architects
• Regulators
• Municipal and County Landscape Personnel

Registration Information

Registration Fee – $290 
Fee increases to $320 after December 15, 2026.

Payment Information

We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and checks for payment of registration fees.
Checks should be made payable to NCSU–BAE and be mailed to:

NCSU-BAE
Campus Box 7625
Raleigh, NC 27695
Attn: Workshop Coordinators

Cancellation, Severe Weather and Refund Policy

Cancellation requests should be sent to bae_training@ncsu.edu for processing. The cancellation request must be submitted at least thirty-one (31) days before the date of the workshop to receive a full refund. Cancellation requests made between thirty (30) days and eight (8) days before the date of the workshop will receive a full refund minus a $25 administrative processing fee. Any cancellation requests made on or within seven (7) days of the workshop will be ineligible for a refund.

Attendee substitutions from within the same company may be made at any time at no cost. Please send an email to bae_training@ncsu.edu with the name of the current registrant and the name and email address of the new registrant.

In the event of severe weather, this workshop may be postponed or canceled at the discretion of the workshop instructors and coordinators. If the workshop is postponed, you may receive a refund if you are unable to attend the newly scheduled date, time, and location. Please contact bae_training@ncsu.edu if you are unable to attend the rescheduled workshop. If the workshop is canceled, you will receive a full refund. If the workshop is postponed or canceled, the workshop instructors and coordination staff are not responsible for participants not meeting their PDHs or CEUs requirements with their various professional licensing boards.

Tentative Course Schedule

Professional Development Hours (Pending Approval)

To ensure that you receive professional credit for this workshop, please bring your license information with you on the day of the workshop for sign-in at the registration table.

The following professional development hours (PDHs) are awarded after successful completion of the workshop and a certificate of attendance will be emailed afterward listing these PDHs.

• 9 PDHs for professional engineers and land surveyors (approved by the NC Board of Examiners for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors) 
• 8.5 CEUs for landscape architects (approved by the NC Board of Landscape Architects)
• 5L CEUs for landscape contractors (approved by the NC Landscape Contractors’ Licensing Board, CE#: 213)
• 1 Commercial pesticide re-certification credits (A, D, H, L, N, X categories)
• 7 CEUs for Geologists (Approval Code: 190075)
• 9 CECs for Certified Floodplain Managers

Other professionals may appeal to their respective boards to obtain professional education credits.

Certification Information

Important Information about the Exam and Testing Procedure

1. The link to the materials website will be provided in the workshop reminder email sent one week before the workshop from bae_training@ncsu.edu. (Please be sure to check your spam folder.)
2. Attendees will have from the end of the workshop until 5:00 pm ET on Wednesday, January 27, 2027 to complete the online exam. You will have 1 hour to complete the exam once you begin the exam.
3. Attendees will be allowed to use the slides in the Presentation Materials as well as any notes that they have taken during the workshop. Attendees cannot use one another, anyone else, or the internet as resources during the exam.
4. While this is an electronically administered exam, you do not automatically receive your score or a pass/fail message. The exams are graded by NC Cooperative Extension faculty or staff after the exam period closes.
5. You must receive a score of 80% or above to pass. Please allow 1 - 2 weeks for this grading period.
6. If you pass the exam, you will receive an email with your certificate and inspector card digitally attached roughly 1 week after the exam period closes. These links are only active for 3 months. Please download and save a copy of these documents as soon as possible. Final exam scores are not provided.
7. Your information will be added to our Certified Professionals List.
8. If you do not have a passing score, you will receive an email from the workshop coordinators regarding a one-time exam retake. The workshop coordinators will not provide you with which questions you missed or how many questions you got wrong.

About the Certification

• This certification is awarded by NC State University Cooperative Extension and is housed in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department.
• To receive the certification, attendees must attend the Stormwater SCM Inspection & Maintenance Certification workshop and receive a score of at least 80% on an examination. Participants have up to 1 hour to complete the exam, which includes approximately 50 multiple-choice and true or false questions. All exams are graded by NC Cooperative Extension faculty.
• After receiving the certification, one will be certified to inspect and maintain stormwater practices in North Carolina according to the Stormwater Design Manual in compliance with North Carolina's Stormwater Rules and Regulations.
• The certification lasts for up to 3 years (the remaining portion of the year in which the class is taken, plus the following 2 years). Those that take the course and exam in October – December will receive 3 full years. All certifications expire on December 31st of the given year.
• Communities in North Carolina may either require or recommend this certification of people who conduct maintenance on and/or inspect stormwater management practices. The state of North Carolina’s NC DENR endorses but does not require, this certification.
• The certification is NOT intended to be a replacement for professional licensure (like PE or RLA) and is only a supplement to those rigorous professional licenses.

Re-certification Information

To continue the certification beyond the original 3 years, certified professionals must attend Update workshops that will be offered throughout North Carolina. There is NO reexamination associated with the 5-hour Update courses. To qualify for the Update course to receive re-certification, certifications must be current or have expired within the last 2 years. Participants whose certifications expired over 2 years ago must retake the regular class and exam. Please have your certificate number ready when registering for an Update workshop, it is a required part of the registration process. Upon completion of the Update workshop, attendees will receive an updated inspector card, good for up to 3 years (the remaining portion of the year in which the class is taken, plus the following 2 years). 

NOTE: The workshop and conference coordinators do not have the manpower nor the software to send notifications or emails when your certification is about to expire. Please be responsible and make the necessary reminders or other arrangements for yourself to keep your certification active. No concessions will be made, especially at the end each year, for those who were not responsible enough to manage their own certification. We are only able to offer this workshop a limited number of times a year, across the state, and each workshop has a limited number of seats available. Again, please plan accordingly to maintain an active and valid certification.

Additional Resources

North Carolina Stormwater Design Manual

North Carolina Stormwater Rules and Regulations