Oklahoma Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP)

The Voluntary Cleanup Program of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) gives private parties and government entities a way to investigate, and if warranted clean up, properties that may be contaminated. DEQ says the program uses a negotiated process, and that its sites range from old oil refineries with several sources of contamination across hundreds of acres to sites of less than an acre with a single source.

In a Phase I ESA

VCP sites are the Oklahoma form of 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 program guide lays the work out in ten steps, and the steps tell you which documents a file can hold:

1. Preliminary meeting and review of existing data
2. Voluntary consent order
3. Work plan for site characterization
4. Characterization report and data gaps determination
5. Feasibility study
6. Proposed plan
7. Decision document
8. Remedial action plan
9. Cleanup
10. Final inspection report and notice of remediation

A site in the program has not necessarily been cleaned up. Find where it stands on that list. The notice of remediation is the last step, so its absence is a reason to ask what remains.

Three more details from DEQ:

• Entry can come late. A party may apply before conducting a cleanup or while one is under way. DEQ says it is always better to work with it before beginning.
• Some properties may not qualify. DEQ notes that a property under a DEQ or EPA cleanup order may not qualify for the program.
• Screening uses EPA's tables. DEQ says it will generally use EPA's Regional Screening Level tables for screening purposes, and points to its own fact sheets on risk-based decision making and on cleanup levels for total petroleum hydrocarbons.

DEQ also says VCP sites generally have the option to enter its Brownfields program if the participant asks.

Where to look a site up

DEQ's Voluntary Cleanup Program page links a map of VCP sites.

Getting the file

DEQ says VCP site records may be requested from Central Records, online or at 405-702-1188, and asks that you have the physical address of the property and the current and former names of any businesses associated with it.

Sources

Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 1, 2026:

• Voluntary Cleanup Program, last modified September 22, 2026.
• Voluntary Cleanup Program Guide, last modified September 22, 2026.
• Central Records, last modified July 31, 2026.