What is on the PE Civil Water Resources and Environmental exam?

The PE Civil Water Resources and Environmental exam is an 80-question, computer-based test with 12 knowledge areas under the NCEES specification effective April 2024. The widest ranges are Project Sitework (9 to 14), hydrology (8 to 12), and three areas at 7 to 11: closed-conduit hydraulics, open-channel hydraulics, and wastewater collection and treatment. You answer every question. References on screen are the PE Civil Reference Handbook and the listed design standards.

What are the knowledge areas and question counts?

NCEES assigns each area a range of questions; the low ends of those ranges add up to 70 of the 80 questions, so some areas on your form will sit above their minimum. The specification effective beginning April 2024 is the current one, and NCEES has also posted specifications effective beginning April 2027 that keep the same knowledge areas and question ranges but change the design standards.

All five PE Civil modules are computer-based and offered year-round. The appointment runs 9 hours: a nondisclosure agreement (2 minutes), a tutorial (8 minutes), the exam itself (8 hours), and a scheduled break (50 minutes). The exam is closed book and uses both SI and U.S. Customary units. See how the PE Civil exam is formatted and which references you can use on the PE exam.

What do the widest areas cover?

Project Sitework, hydrology, the two hydraulics areas, and wastewater collection and treatment carry the widest ranges. The descriptions below use ordinary engineering language for that scope.

Project Sitework

This area is field construction: excavation, embankment, grading, and cut and fill; laying out the site and controlling the work; and erosion and sediment control, temporary or permanent. That control work includes construction permits, how sediment moves, and protection at channels and outlets. Questions can also cover effects on neighboring facilities, and safety for the crew, along the road, and in the work zone. Geometry stays basic: horizontal and vertical curve elements, retaining walls, and common construction methods.

Hydrology

Hydrology runs from the storm, through runoff, to facilities that hold or treat that water. Storm topics include how often a storm is expected, how rainfall is measured and spread over time, intensity, duration, frequency, the chance the storm is exceeded, and records from rain and stream gauges. Runoff may use the rational method or SCS/NRCS methods, then a hydrograph (including a synthetic hydrograph) and time of concentration. Water can leave the system by evaporation, detention, percolation, or diversion, and management and treatment include detention and retention ponds, infiltration, swales, and constructed wetlands.

Closed-conduit and open-channel hydraulics

Closed-conduit items use energy, continuity, or momentum, including Bernoulli’s equation and grade lines. Pipes may be a single line or a force main, with Hazen-Williams or Darcy-Weisbach friction and both major and minor losses. Pump problems include applying and checking pumps, wet wells, lift stations, and cavitation, and networks may be in series, in parallel, or looped.

Open-channel items cover flow in channels, hydraulic grade lines, and energy dissipation at a plunge pool, a drop structure, or a culvert outlet. Storm drainage includes culverts, inlets, gutter flow, street flow, and storm sewer pipes, along with subcritical and supercritical flow.

Wastewater collection and treatment

Collection work goes beyond the pipe: lift stations, sewer networks, infiltration and inflow, smoke testing, maintenance, and odor control. At the plant, expect preliminary treatment, primary treatment, and secondary treatment by physical, chemical, or biological processes, plus nutrient removal. Solids treatment, handling, and disposal, and disinfection, are in this area, and advanced treatment can include advanced oxidation, filtering the effluent, adsorption, and reclaimed water.

The other knowledge areas

Analysis and Design is the accounting of a process: mass balance, hydraulic loading, solids loading such as sediment or sludge, and measuring flow. Drinking water covers the distribution system, storage, and demand now, in the short term, and in the long term. Treatment includes settling, coagulation and flocculation, membranes and media filters, disinfection and the byproducts of disinfection, hardness and softening, and further processes such as ion exchange, carbon adsorption, ozone, UV, and removal of a specific constituent.

Surface water and groundwater quality covers how a stream degrades, how oxygen in the water changes, and total maximum daily load problems such as nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and splitting the allowable load, plus biological and chemical contaminants. Groundwater and wells covers aquifers, how groundwater moves, and drawdown at a well. Materials covers classifying soil, reading boring logs, and soil strength, permeability, compressibility, and phase relationships, plus nonreinforced and reinforced concrete, pipe materials, and whether a test meets the specification. Project planning covers quantity takeoff, cost estimates, schedules, naming activities and putting them in order, and comparisons such as present worth, cost over the project life, and alternatives, including sustainability. Soil mechanics covers lateral earth pressure, consolidation, compaction, bearing capacity, settlement, and slope stability.

Which design standards does the exam supply?

For this module, the April 2024 specification supplies two standards: TSS Recommended Standards for Wastewater Facilities (2014) and TSS Recommended Standards for Water Works (2018).

The April 2027 specification replaces the 2018 water works standard with the 2022 edition and adds CFR Title 29 Part 1926 (2024), USACE EM 1110-2-1902 Slope Stability (2003), FHWA HDS 5 culverts (2012), and FHWA HEC No. 14 (2006). The 2014 wastewater facilities standard is not named among those changes. Study the editions tied to the specification in effect on your exam date. What changes in the PE Civil design standards in April 2027 covers the other civil modules.

When a question depends on a standard, NCEES scores it on the edition named in the specification, and work based on any other standard gets no credit. On the exam, standards are searchable PDF chapters, and only one chapter can be open and searched at a time; the handbook and the standards stay available for the whole exam. The PE Civil Reference Handbook is version 2.2 (third posting December 2025), and the PDF is 502 pages. NCEES does not sell printed copies of the handbook and does not provide design standards for study. Publishers sell the standards.

What pass rate has NCEES reported?

NCEES last updated these PE Civil pass rates in July 2026. For Water Resources and Environmental, 2620 first-time examinees had a pass rate of 71%, and 876 repeat examinees had a pass rate of 49%. In that table, both rates are higher than the rates for the other four civil modules.

These percentages describe the group that tested; they do not forecast one person’s result. If you are choosing a module, compare the content with the work you do, and Which PE Civil exam should you take is a direct way to make that choice. Pass rates outside civil are on the PE exam pass rate page.

How do you study for the water resources and environmental exam?

Practice in the files you will have on screen. The handbook is one PDF you can search for the whole exam, while each design standard opens one chapter at a time, so learn which chapter holds the criterion you need. Solve problems while searching the handbook and while using the TSS standards that match your exam date. If your date falls under the April 2027 list, add CFR Title 29 Part 1926, USACE EM 1110-2-1902, FHWA HDS 5, and FHWA HEC No. 14 to that practice.

One way to split the work is to put the largest share of new problems on Project Sitework, hydrology, both hydraulics areas, and wastewater, then on drinking water and Analysis and Design. Keep project planning, materials, soil mechanics, groundwater, and surface-water quality in a regular rotation so those shorter areas stay familiar. Practice in both SI and U.S. Customary units. The 12-week PE study plan is one way to lay the weeks out. Buy the standards from their publishers in the editions your exam date uses.

Frequently asked questions

How many questions are on the PE Civil Water Resources and Environmental exam?

There are 80 questions, and you work all of them. The exam is 8 hours inside a 9-hour appointment that also includes a 2-minute nondisclosure agreement, an 8-minute tutorial, and a 50-minute scheduled break. The 80 questions are spread across 12 knowledge areas, each with a range. The April 2024 specification sets those ranges, and the April 2027 specification uses the same ranges.

What design standards are used on PE Civil Water Resources and Environmental?

Under the April 2024 specification, this module supplies TSS Recommended Standards for Wastewater Facilities (2014) and TSS Recommended Standards for Water Works (2018). The April 2027 specification replaces the water works volume with the 2022 edition and adds CFR Title 29 Part 1926 (2024), USACE EM 1110-2-1902 Slope Stability (2003), FHWA HDS 5 culverts (2012), and FHWA HEC No. 14 (2006). Scoring uses the edition named for your exam date, and an answer drawn from a different standard receives no credit.

What is the PE Civil Water Resources and Environmental pass rate?

In the NCEES PE Civil table last updated July 2026, first-time examinees in this module passed at 71% (2620 examinees) and repeat examinees passed at 49% (876 examinees). Those figures describe that testing group. In the same update, both rates are higher than the rates for Construction, Geotechnical, Structural, and Transportation.

Is the PE Civil Water Resources and Environmental exam open book?

It is a closed-book exam. The references are electronic: the PE Civil Reference Handbook and the design standards listed for this module. Both stay available through the 8-hour exam. Each standard opens as PDF chapters, and only one chapter can be searched at a time.

Sources

1. NCEES PE Civil: Water Resources and Environmental exam specifications, effective April 2024 (PDF). Retrieved October 3, 2026.
2. NCEES: PE Civil exam. Retrieved October 3, 2026.
3. NCEES: PE exam. Retrieved October 3, 2026.