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Delaware

Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP)

Agency Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
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The Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) is available to all parties who may be liable for the contamination of a property but who wish to settle their liabilities with DNREC under the Hazardous Substance Cleanup Act (HSCA). DNREC says current owners of contaminated properties may volunteer to clean up a site before DNREC orders a cleanup under HSCA, which could result in a speedier and less costly cleanup. Voluntary cleanup begins with an application to DNREC's Remediation Section, which oversees the investigation and cleanup.

In a Phase I ESA

This handbook reads the VCP as the Delaware form of the state voluntary cleanup records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. That pairing is the handbook's reading: the pages read link no list of VCP sites. The general reading of a voluntary cleanup listing is on the VCP page. Four Delaware details shape how to read one.

  • Entry can follow a notice letter. DNREC's HSCA page says DNREC may send a potentially responsible party a notice letter to investigate and clean up a release and invite it to join the VCP. So a VCP site may be one DNREC identified first.
  • An agreement is not a finished cleanup. An eligible applicant signs a Voluntary Cleanup Program Agreement, allows the Remediation Section to oversee the investigation and cleanup, and pays the cost of that oversight, typically with a deposit at the start. Applicants may end the agreement at any time during the investigation and cleanup, subject to certain conditions, and DNREC may end it if it finds the applicant is not making a good-faith effort to clean up the property. Check whether the file holds a completed cleanup or an ended agreement.
  • The application asks for the site's history. Applicants must give details of any past investigations at their site, and the Remediation Section decides eligibility from that information.
  • Owners and buyers take different routes. DNREC's brownfields page says current property owners are not eligible for the Brownfields Development Program but can clean up their sites through the VCP. For purchasers considering acquiring and redeveloping potentially contaminated sites, the Brownfields Development Program negotiates brownfields development agreements.

All consultants doing work under HSCA must be certified by DNREC, only DNREC-approved laboratories may do analytical work at sites investigated under HSCA, including the VCP, and that work follows DNREC's Standard Operating Procedures for Chemical Analytical Programs. The outcomes DNREC lists for an initial assessment under HSCA, including two kinds of no further action, are on the HSCA State Lead and Enforcement Programs page.

Where to look a site up

Getting the file

The VCP page does not give a records route of its own. DNREC's FOIA page says the Delaware Freedom of Information Act ensures public access to public records held by DNREC; the route is on the DNREC FOIA Requests page.

Sources

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control pages, read October 13, 2026:

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