Pennsylvania
Multi-Site Remediation Agreements
Pennsylvania Multi-Site Remediation Agreements
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) makes voluntary agreements with remediators that cover many sites at once. DEP calls them Multi-Site Remediation Agreements, or Multi-Site Agreements (MSAs), and says they give statewide prioritization and centralized coordination of site assessment and remediation. Its Site Remediation Division oversees them.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name multi-site agreements among its standard record sources. They are worth knowing about when a property was once one of many held by the same owner, because the schedule and paperwork for its cleanup may sit in the agreement. That is advice for the search, not something DEP says.
- How an agreement is built. DEP says the two sides define common goals, then develop a site inventory that forms the basis for the workload under the agreement. Master schedules and deliverables are added before each party's legal review. So an agreement has a list of sites behind it.
- The cleanup standard is usually Act 2. DEP says the assessment and cleanup work typically follows the Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act. See Act 2 remediation standards.
- Read what an agreement counts. For its completed storage tank agreements, DEP reports the sites that achieved a remedy in place, a DEP-approved remedial action plan, or a remedial action completion report. A plan is not a completion report. Check the status of the tank incident itself on the Storage Tank Cleanup Program list.
What the record shows
DEP's pages describe three groups of agreements.
| Group | What DEP's page says |
|---|---|
| Former manufactured gas plants | Agreements to assess and remediate former manufactured gas plant sites and former gas holder, regulator and service center sites. DEP's page describes the agreements and the kinds of contamination they address. |
| Storage tanks | Agreements meant to resolve open cases of regulated storage tank releases. DEP's storage tank page describes one current agreement and two completed ones, and links each agreement document. |
| Federal facilities | The Department of Defense and State Memorandum of Agreement program, under which DEP supports cleanups at Department of Defense installations and Formerly Used Defense Sites. |
The manufactured gas plant page gives end dates for its agreements that have passed, in 2016 and 2019. The pages read do not say whether those agreements were extended, so ask DEP about the current status of a site covered by one.
A former manufactured gas plant, a gas holder site or a service station is a reason to ask whether an agreement covers the property.
Where to look a site up
The pages read give no searchable list of the sites covered by an agreement. DEP's Multi-Site Remediation Agreements page links a page for each group, and the manufactured gas plant and storage tank pages link the agreement documents themselves. For more information DEP gives the Site Remediation Division 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. Consent orders are among the records DEP says it routinely makes available for inspection.
Sources
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 1, 2026, no modified date shown: