Barrow Logo Barrow EP Handbook

VCP

ASTM search distance 0.5 mile
Scope State / Tribal

Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) Sites

State programs through which a property owner, buyer, or developer voluntarily investigates and cleans up a site under agency oversight in exchange for a closure document (a certificate of completion, no-further-action letter, or similar), often with liability protections that extend to lenders and future owners.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 requires a 0.5 mile search. Former enrollments count alongside active ones (Table 2, Note A).

A VCP entry is a paper trail, and usually a good one. Someone found contamination worth enrolling over, and the program file holds the investigation reports, the cleanup standard applied, and the closure terms. For a subject property with a VCP history, the closure document's conditions (use restrictions, controls, reopeners) decide whether the history reads as resolved (candidate HREC), resolved with controls (candidate CREC), or incomplete. Withdrawn or never-completed enrollments are their own flag: the investigation happened and the closure did not.

Where the data lives

State VCP databases and program files. The closure certificate and any recorded restrictions are the controlling documents.

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report