Colorado Voluntary Cleanup and Redevelopment Program (VCUP)

Colorado's voluntary cleanup program is the Voluntary Cleanup and Redevelopment Program (VCUP) of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). CDPHE says it was created in 1994 to facilitate the redevelopment and transfer of contaminated properties, and that it provides a timely review, 45 days, of cleanup plans submitted by property owners.

In a Phase I ESA

VCUP sites are the Colorado form of the state voluntary cleanup records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a voluntary cleanup listing is on the VCP page. Four Colorado details shape how to read one.

• A plan review is not oversight. CDPHE says cleanup decisions are based on existing standards and the proposed use of the property, but that it provides no construction or cleanup oversight. The actual cleanup and its verification are the owner's responsibility.
• Completion takes a second application. To receive EPA's assurance that it will not take Superfund action, as set out in the program's Memorandum of Agreement with EPA, the owner must submit a completion report as a new application for a No Action Determination, so that CDPHE can review and concur that the plan was completed as approved. Check whether a site with an approved plan also has that later determination.
• The decision assumes a use. Since decisions rest on the proposed use of the property, compare the use in the application with the use of the property in front of you.
• Lenders are part of the design. CDPHE says the program gives federal and state remedial plan approval in one step, and that banks will accept a No Action Determination letter as assurance that neither CDPHE nor EPA will order a costly, conventional cleanup.

The program is tied to Colorado's brownfields incentives. A cleanup financed through the Brownfields Revolving Loan Fund must have previous approval under the voluntary cleanup program, and CDPHE's page on the state brownfields tax credit says it requires a voluntary cleanup plan and a No Action Determination. Those are on the Brownfields Program page.

CDPHE charges for its review by the hour. The rate it gives is $140 per hour. The statute is Title 25, Article 16, Part 3 of the Colorado Revised Statutes (25-16-301 and following).

Where to look a site up

CDPHE's Voluntary Cleanup and Redevelopment Program page links three tools:

• an interactive map of voluntary cleanup sites;
• voluntary cleanup sites grouped by county, a data visualization that CDPHE says can be downloaded to a spreadsheet;
• Voluntary Cleanup open records data.

The pages read do not say how often these are updated.

Getting the file

Ask for the application, the plan and the determination letters. CDPHE's Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division has an online records search and takes requests through the form on its records review page or at cdphe_cora_hmwmd@state.co.us. The route is described on the records review page.

Sources

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment pages, read October 7, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Voluntary Cleanup and Redevelopment Program
• Voluntary cleanup sites grouped by county
• Voluntary Cleanup open records data
• Brownfields Program
• Colorado Brownfields tax credit notification requirements
• Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division records review