North Carolina

Registered Environmental Consultant (REC) Program

Agency North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality

The Registered Environmental Consultant (REC) Program is the privatized part of the voluntary cleanups overseen by the Superfund Section's Inactive Hazardous Sites Branch, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). DEQ says the Branch could not answer every request to oversee a cleanup, so the General Assembly amended the state's inactive hazardous sites law in 1994 and 1995 to let private firms take over that oversight at lower priority voluntary remedial actions. Under the program, a responsible party hires an REC to carry out a site's assessment and cleanup and to certify that the work meets the rules; that certification stands in for state oversight, and the state audits a share of REC projects and sanctions firms where it must. The rules, 15A NCAC 13C .0300, took effect April 1, 1997 and were readopted July 1, 2020; an REC is the approved firm, and its Registered Site Managers are the employees approved to certify compliance.

In a Phase I ESA

REC Program sites are paired here with 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. DEQ's brownfields FAQ gives Voluntary Cleanup Program as a shorter name for the Inactive Hazardous Sites Program, and DEQ's brownfields program page names the REC Program as that program's privatized oversight. The pages read link no separate list of REC or voluntary cleanup sites, so the pairing is the handbook's reading.

Four North Carolina details shape how to read one.

Where the sites show. DEQ says a site that satisfactorily completes a voluntary remedial action, whether under an REC or under state oversight, is given No Further Action status in the Inactive Hazardous Sites Program inventory, and that the status does not bar later state action if new evidence of contamination appears.
Which sites go to an REC. A party that comes to the Branch about a cleanup must fill in a Site Conditions Questionnaire on known exposure concerns. DEQ says sites of less public concern, where public exposure can be controlled and no sensitive environment is affected, generally go to the REC Program, and the worst public health threats get direct state oversight; a condition on the checklist does not by itself rule out the REC Program.
Most volunteers are responsible parties. The brownfields FAQ says the voluntary program dates from 1987, that any party may clean up under it, and that most who do caused or contributed to the contamination. It is separate from the Brownfields Redevelopment Section; see Brownfields Redevelopment Section.
The work rests on an agreement. DEQ posts a sample Administrative Agreement, updated September 2024, and a document on how to start a voluntary cleanup. The finished work ends in a letter that the agreement is complete. Ask whether the file holds that letter and the REC's certifications.

Where to look a site up

The site lists linked from the Inactive Hazardous Sites Program page, dated March 2026, which this handbook did not open.
DEQ's Approved RECs list (February 2026), not opened here, is a list of approved firms.
DWM's enforcement page links a page it labels Superfund Inactive Hazardous Sites' REC Program Violations, which this handbook did not open.
The program page lists named staff as its contacts. DEQ's Division of Waste Management takes general inquiries at 919-707-8200.

Getting the file

The REC Program belongs to the Superfund Section's Inactive Hazardous Sites Branch; the pages read do not say where REC site files are kept. DWM's file room page says the Superfund Section File Room takes requests by letter, phone or email, at Mail Service Center 1646, Raleigh, NC 27699-1646, and shows files only by appointment; DEQ's Superfund File Records page says some of the section's files may not be online. 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: