Maine
Uncontrolled Hazardous Substance Sites Program (USP)
The Uncontrolled Hazardous Substance Sites Program (USP) of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) was created to abate the threats to human health and the environment posed by abandoned sites contaminated with hazardous substances. DEP calls the USP "the state equivalent" to EPA's federal Superfund Program, and says it has the authority to issue orders requiring responsible parties to clean up. It is one program within DEP's Division of Remediation. Its law is Title 38, Chapter 13-B, Uncontrolled Hazardous Substance Sites, §§ 1361 to 1371.
In a Phase I ESA
Because DEP itself calls the USP the state equivalent of Superfund, its sites are the Maine form of the state Superfund equivalent records that ASTM E1527-21 lists as a standard source. The general reading of a state Superfund listing is on the state Superfund equivalent page. Three Maine details shape how to read one.
- Which program holds a site varies. DEP says the USP is one of several programs that evaluate and mitigate discharges of hazardous substances, and that jurisdiction over a site is usually set by the nature of the discharge or by who is doing the investigation and cleanup: the party that caused the spill, a potential purchaser of a contaminated property, or the federal government. The other programs the page lists as investigating and mitigating hazardous substance discharges include the Voluntary Response Action Program, the RCRA Corrective Action and Closure Program, the Federal Facilities and Superfund Programs and the Municipal Landfill Closure and Remediation Program, so search the remediation records as a whole, not the USP alone. DEP says sites with long-term petroleum contamination only go to its Petroleum Remediation Program; see Petroleum Clean Up.
- PFAS counts as a hazardous substance. DEP's PFAS page says the Legislature changed the definition of hazardous substance under the Uncontrolled Sites Law in 2021 to include PFAS, under 38 M.R.S. § 1362(1)(H), which gives the state the authority to designate a state site with PFAS contamination as an uncontrolled site. DEP sent the Legislature a status report on designating such sites in January 2023, and names the Uncontrolled Sites program among those that have investigated PFAS at contaminated sites.
- Some sites are evaluated for federal help. DEP says the USP works with EPA's Site Assessment Program and Environmental Response Team to evaluate sites for federal assistance, including emergency response or possible listing on the National Priorities List.
DEP's guidance for the investigation and cleanup of hazardous substance sites sets out the steps its cleanup programs use, the USP among them: emergency removal, Phase I environmental site assessment, conceptual site model, Phase II assessment, remedial investigation, risk evaluation against DEP's cleanup guidelines, and feasibility study.
Where to look a site up
- DEP says USP sites are listed in the Division of Remediation's Sites List, linked from the File Room, Reports and Lists page, which DEP describes as the public record of past and current sites in six remediation programs, with each site's location and status and whether it has institutional controls.
- DEP's GIS Maps and Other Data Files page maps Uncontrolled Site locations with the other remediation 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. Files converted since are in DEP's online remediation documents portal, linked from the File Room, Reports and Lists page; paper files, including Uncontrolled Sites files, are reviewed at the file room by appointment, at (207) 287-7843. DEP says many sites have a mix of paper and electronic files. See File Room, Reports and Lists.
Sources
Maine Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: