North Carolina
Dry-Cleaning Solvent Cleanup Act (DSCA) Program
Under the Dry-cleaning Solvent Cleanup Act of 1997 and its amendments, North Carolina set up a fund to assess and clean up dry-cleaning solvent contamination at dry cleaners and wholesale solvent distributors, and gave the program power to make and enforce rules that prevent releases at operating dry cleaners. The DSCA Program sits in the Superfund Section of the Division of Waste Management (DWM), North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), and is paid for entirely by taxes on dry-cleaning sales and solvents. Its Remediation Unit oversees cleanups at certified sites, carried out by state-contracted engineering firms; its Compliance Unit inspects active dry cleaners.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name dry cleaner program records among its standard record sources. DSCA's records still answer two questions a Phase I asks: whether a dry cleaner operated at or near the property, and whether a solvent cleanup is under way or closed there.
Four North Carolina details shape how to read them.
- Three kinds of location. DEQ says the Site Locator Tool can show sites in the DSCA cleanup program, active facilities the Compliance Unit inspects, and places where dry cleaners once operated, searched by address or DSCA ID number. DEQ explains the map's markers in an image, which this handbook does not carry.
- Who can enter. The cleanup program is open to past and present owners, operators and lessees of a dry-cleaning business, and past and present owners of property where a dry cleaner or wholesale distributor operated, if an operating facility complies with the Minimum Management Practices and samples show dry-cleaning solvent in soil or groundwater. Commercial laundries and uniform rental and fabric manufacturing facilities are not eligible, nor is a buyer until it owns the site. Entry is voluntary; DEQ says a site that stays out is referred to other DEQ cleanup programs.
- What it costs and pays. DEQ lists a $1,000 petition fee and a yearly co-payment of 1 to 2 percent of what DSCA spends on the site, which ends once that spending passes $1 million; DSCA pays 98 to 99 percent of the costs. DEQ says a participant cannot then be made by another state agency to pay for that cleanup itself.
- Closure is recorded. Contamination found to pose no unacceptable risk is left in place under land-use restrictions, and DEQ says the property where the dry cleaner is or was will carry restrictions at a minimum. Closure brings a Risk Management Plan, a 30-day public comment period, and a Notice of Dry-Cleaning Solvent Remediation (NDCSR) and survey plat filed with the county Register of Deeds. Where groundwater contamination has spread onto neighboring land, a notice about the state law on wells and contaminated groundwater goes on those deeds, with 60 days to appeal. After the recording, the site gets a No Further Action letter, which ends the closure. The owner then certifies the restrictions each year by January 31 and must tell DEQ within 14 calendar days after any sale or transfer of the property takes effect. For a closed DSCA site, ask for the recorded NDCSR, the Risk Management Plan and the No Further Action letter.
The DSCA page also lists a topic it calls Phase I/II Research, on researching dry cleaner properties for a transaction site assessment. On the page as read it carries no link.
Where to look a site up
- DWM's Site Locator Tool, linked from the DSCA page.
- DEQ's DSCA Site Lists/Facility Inventories page posts Active and Inactive Drycleaner Facilities, still subject to compliance inspections, and Closed Dry-Cleaner Facilities, no longer subject to them, each dated February 2025, with a key to their service types and a list of 2024 inspection visits. For remediation sites it points to the Site Locator Tool. This handbook did not open the lists.
- DEQ says DSCA site reports are in DWM's Laserfiche system, searched by DSCA site ID typed without spaces or dashes. Its DSCA page says the list of DSCA sites gives the ID, but the lists page as read posts no list of remediation sites, only a map link under that heading.
- The DSCA page links a contacts page, which this handbook did not open. DWM takes general inquiries at 919-707-8200.
Getting the file
DEQ points to Laserfiche for DSCA site reports. The program is part of the Superfund Section, whose file room, DWM's file room page says, takes requests by letter, phone or email and shows files only by appointment. DEQ's online request form is the department's general route; see Requesting Public Records.
Sources
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: