Brownfields Program

The Brownfields Program of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) works with municipalities and potential owners on the investigation and, where needed, the remediation of brownfields, to encourage their redevelopment. DEP's issue profile for the program, revised March 2018, says it began in 1995 with EPA funding for site assessments, and that it began within and remains part of the Voluntary Response Action Program (VRAP). DEP gives the major difference between the two as funding: EPA provides some direct funding for brownfields, while property owners, purchasers or developers fund VRAP sites.

In a Phase I ESA

DEP keeps a public record of the sites in its program: its issue profile says EPA requires states to provide one, and that DEP's public record database lists each site's name, status and location. Those sites are the Maine form of the state brownfields records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a brownfields listing is on the Brownfields page. Three Maine details shape how to read one.

• Ask for the VRAP file too. DEP says that in most cases Brownfields sites also participate in VRAP, and that sites usually enter VRAP between the Phase I and the Phase II investigation. DEP says VRAP provides the review, oversight and approval of investigations and remediations, and issues the liability releases.
• DEP's contractors may have done the assessment. Under its Municipal Brownfields Site Assessment Program, the issue profile, revised March 2018, says DEP had environmental consultants under contract to conduct Phase I and Phase II assessments and Analyses of Brownfields Cleanup Alternatives on behalf of municipalities. A municipality need not own the property but should have an interest in owning it or a plan for its redevelopment. For property a town owns or has sought, ask whether DEP's contractors assessed it.
• DEP's cleanup funding is capped. Under DEP's Municipal Brownfields Remedial Program, the municipality must own the property and must have completed at least a Phase I assessment. The issue profile, revised March 2018, says funding for each site is limited to $50,000 and must result in a clean site ready for redevelopment, with the municipality responsible for any cost above that.

EPA also awards competitive brownfields grants directly to municipalities and nonprofit groups. The issue profile says the recipients are required to work with DEP through VRAP throughout the process.

Where to look a site up

• The Brownfields page links the list of known remediation sites, including Brownfield sites. DEP describes this Division of Remediation Sites List as the public record of past and current sites in six remediation programs, the Brownfields Program among them, with each site's location and status and whether it has institutional controls.
• DEP's GIS Maps and Other Data Files page maps the sites under the Remediation Sites (Institutional Controls) Database.
• This handbook did not open the list or the map.

Getting the file

DEP's Administrative Record for remediation sites was on paper until February 2021. Converted files are in DEP's online remediation documents portal, which includes Brownfields sites, linked from the File Room, Reports and Lists page. Paper Brownfields files are reviewed at the file room by appointment, at (207) 287-7843. For more on the program, the issue profile gives DEP's Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management at (207) 287-7688. See File Room, Reports and Lists.

Sources

Maine Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 13, 2026:

• Brownfields, no modified date shown.
• Brownfields Issue Profile, revised March 2018.
• DEP Issue Profile for VRAP, dated March 2018 at its head, with a later note on the fall of 2025.
• File Room, Reports, Scanned Documents and Lists, no modified date shown.
• GIS Maps & Other Data Files, no modified date shown.