Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program

Pennsylvania's Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act (HSCA), Act 108 of 1988, gives the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) the funding and authority to conduct cleanup actions at sites where there is a release, or a substantial threat of a release, of a hazardous substance or contaminant. It also gives DEP enforcement authority to compel the persons responsible to conduct cleanup actions or to repay public funds spent on a DEP-funded cleanup.

In a Phase I ESA

The program's sites are the Pennsylvania form of the state equivalent to the federal Superfund lists, which ASTM E1527-21 names as a standard source. The general reading of a state Superfund listing is on the state Superfund equivalent page.

• What kind of site this is. DEP says most HSCA sites involve bankrupt facility owners, abandoned facilities and inappropriate disposal of hazardous substances. As a general rule, it says, HSCA sites do not include active facilities with financially viable owners.
• The list is of actions, not of problems. DEP's public list is of response actions taken with HSCA funding since the Act was enacted on October 18, 1988. DEP says the purpose of the report is not to identify problem areas but to show the status of all response actions taken. The listing is of response actions, so read the action type and its dates before drawing a conclusion about the site.
• It works beside federal Superfund. DEP says HSCA and Act 2 give it authority to address contaminated sites that would not be covered by the federal Superfund program or state enforcement programs. HSCA also lets the Commonwealth take part in federal Superfund cleanups in Pennsylvania, where DEP says the state finances ten percent of a funded remedial action and all of the operation and maintenance costs after the remedial action is complete. The federal list is described on the NPL page.

What the record shows

The response actions list gives the DEP region, county, municipality, facility name, response action name, the response justification date, the type of response action, and its start and finish dates. DEP's key to the action types:

Three reading notes from DEP's key. The response justification date is the date DEP deemed an HSCA response action appropriate, and some sites do not have one. Where a start date is unknown, DEP enters 1/1/1901, so that date is a placeholder. And the response action name is sometimes the same as the facility name and sometimes gives no further information about the action.

Where an operation and maintenance action is listed, check the Activity and Use Limitations (PA AUL) Registry for the same property.

Where to look a site up

• DEP's Hazardous Site Response Actions List page carries the interactive Hazardous Site Response Actions Report. DEP says the information is derived from its eFACTS database.
• The Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program page also links a document of HSCA remedial sites with their listing and de-listing dates.
• DEP publishes a yearly Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund annual report.
• For a specific response action, DEP says to contact the Environmental Cleanup and Brownfields Program in the regional office. The Site Remediation Division is at 717-787-0886.

Getting the file

DEP's records are reviewed through its regional offices. DEP recommends an Informal File Review, requested on an electronic form and scheduled with the regional office, before a request under the Right-to-Know Law. Both routes are on the Informal File Review and Right-to-Know requests page.

Sources

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 1, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program
• Hazardous Site Response Actions List
• Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund Annual Report
• Site Remediation
• Superfund
• Informal File Review