PCEW study guide
PCEW · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Professional Certified Environmental Worker (PCEW) is a multiple-choice credential aimed at practitioners who carry out day-to-day environmental compliance work: waste handlers, wastewater and stormwater operators, air monitoring technicians, remediation field staff, and the EHS coordinators who support them. It tests whether you can apply regulatory logic in the field, not whether you have memorized statute numbers. The PCEW study guide has 8 sections and about 2,742 words.
01Environmental Regulations, Permits, and Compliance Reporting
This domain asks whether you can connect a facility activity to the right statute, permit condition, and report, then defend the answer with a deadline, threshold, and record. Expect questions on the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, RCRA, CERCLA, EPCRA, and the permit programs that implement them.
361 words, about 2 min02Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Waste Management and Disposal
Hazardous waste questions test the RCRA decision path: is it a solid waste, is it hazardous by listing or characteristic, who generates it, how it may be accumulated, and how it moves to disposal. Non-hazardous industrial and municipal wastes follow separate state and local rules.
377 words, about 2 min03Water and Wastewater Treatment, Discharge, and Stormwater Controls
This domain tests the Clean Water Act framework, NPDES and pretreatment requirements, wastewater treatment performance, stormwater pollution prevention, and discharge monitoring. You should be able to read a permit limit, select the right averaging period, and recognize when a bypass, spill, or stormwater condition triggers reporting or corrective action.
339 words, about 2 min04Air Emissions, Permitting, and Monitoring
Air questions test source classification, permit applicability, emission calculations, control efficiency, and monitoring obligations. Expect the Clean Air Act programs: SIP requirements, New Source Performance Standards, NESHAP and MACT standards for hazardous air pollutants, Title V operating permits, and New Source Review or PSD permitting.
326 words, about 2 min05Site Assessment, Remediation, and Contaminated Media Handling
This domain tests the site-investigation sequence: recognize a release, evaluate liability and risk, characterize contaminated media, select a remedy, and manage excavated or treated material. Expect CERCLA, RCRA corrective action, state voluntary cleanup programs, Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments, and conceptual site models.
341 words, about 2 min06Environmental Health and Safety, Occupational Exposure, and Emergency Response
This domain tests worker protection and emergency response: hazard communication, exposure limits, respirator selection, PPE, monitoring, medical surveillance, confined spaces, and incident command. Expect OSHA HAZWOPER and HazCom concepts applied to environmental cleanup and spill response.
332 words, about 2 min07Sampling, Monitoring, Chain of Custody, and Data Quality
This domain tests whether a sample result is defensible. Expect sampling plans, containers and preservation, holding times, chain of custody, quality assurance and quality control, blanks, duplicates, calibration, detection and reporting limits, and data validation.
321 words, about 2 min08Professional Ethics, Recordkeeping, and Reporting Integrity
This domain tests integrity in environmental practice: accurate reporting, proper certification, conflict-of-interest management, confidentiality, record retention, and correction of errors. Expect scenarios where a supervisor, client, or operator pressures you to alter data, backdate a record, or omit a deviation.
345 words, about 2 min